Appointed by the Board of Governors
July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019
Appointed by the General Assembly
July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2023
July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2027
Tim Haskett’s WCU roots are deep. He grew up less than 10 miles from the university in Sylva, NC. His mother, Jimmie Lee Blanton Haskett, graduated from WCU in 1953 with her teaching degree. In 1979 he followed her to WCU and graduated in 1982 with a BSBA, majoring in Accounting, and then in 1984 with his MBA. While at WCU, he met and married his wife, Donna Carpenter Haskett, who also graduated from WCU with her BSEd in 1985. Aside from his immediate family, WCU has also supplied fantastic educational and employment opportunities to many of his extended family members who are from Jackson County.
WCU has always been on the cutting edge of education and Tim has benefited. As a local high school student he was fortunate to participate in the late 1970’s in a WCU pilot program similar to many high school’s current Early College Program. When he graduated from high school with the help of this program and former WCU professors like Ron Marshall and Max Williams who participated in the program, he was already a sophomore at WCU. This was a welcome opportunity to a student of modest means.
While in graduate school, he was Graduate Assistant in the School of Business where he taught introductory accounting, tutored undergraduates in the Accounting Lab, and got to work for fantastic professors like John Beagle and Jack Barnette. But he also took advantage of other summer and part-time student employment opportunities at WCU. In those settings, individuals like Clifford Casey in Student Housing and Baxter Wood at the University Center provided Tim with life lessons never taught in textbooks that have stayed with him throughout his professional career. Because of the opportunities and life lessons that the university has provided him, he wanted to give back to WCU as a member of its Board of Trustees.
During his 37+ year career at Duke Energy, he has been held a wide variety finance related positions in Transmission and Joint Owner Accounting, Treasury, Internal Audit and Corporate Planning. In his current position, he leads Duke Energy Carolina’s and Duke Energy Progress’s annual Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) rate formulation process and handles the subsequent customer data requests, customer challenges and negotiation of the final rate settlement. Prior to joining Duke Energy, Tim worked as a Personal Banker for Wachovia Bank & Trust (now Wells Fargo).
Tim is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
Tim and Donna have established the Haskett Phoenix Endowed Scholarship for the benefit of WCU students aging out of foster care, emancipated youth, homeless, or wards of the state who have a demonstrated financial need.
Also, Tim is currently the Chairperson of WCU’s Baxter Wood Family Scholarship Fund and a member of the Catamount Club. Previously he was the Treasurer for the Delta Alpha Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Order at WCU and a Boy and Cub Scout leader in the Gaston County area.
Tim and Donna are blessed with three grown children and their spouses, Andrew, Joseph (Mary Bryce), and Samantha (Luke) and three grandchildren. Tim and Donna currently reside in Kings Mountain, NC. However, they frequently return to Jackson County since their son, Joseph, resides in Sylva.