Thom Reilly

Harrah's Entertainment

Thom Reilly is currently corporate vice president of Community Reinvestment & Social Responsibility for Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. He is responsible for managing and developing global social responsibility and corporate philanthropy programs. He also serves as the executive director for the Harrah’s Foundation, a separate 501(c) 3. In 2006, Harrah’s and its foundation distributed, on average, nearly $1.5 million a week in community contributions.

Reilly is the former county manager/CEO for Clark County, Nevada where he was responsible for the executive oversight of a government that provides both regional and municipal-type services to more than 1.8 million residents (44 million tourists per year). In this position as the county’s chief executive officer, he was charged with carrying out the policies established by the seven-member Board of County Commissioners. Reilly was responsible for the fiscal management of the county’s $5.8 billion budget and provided administrative oversight for 38 diverse and geographically dispersed departments (including McCarran International Airport and the University Medical Center) and close to 12,000 employees.

Reilly began his professional career as a child welfare case manager for the state of Tennessee in 1983. He accepted his first position in Nevada as a policy analyst in 1987 with the Nevada Department of Human Resources in Carson City. In 1988, Reilly assumed the position of chief of social services, and was subsequently promoted to deputy administrator before moving to Las Vegas in 1991 to join the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services. In that role, Reilly was responsible for overseeing the child welfare system for the state of Nevada.

Reilly left the state in 1997 to serve as director of Clark County Administrative Services where he served as the chief administrative officer and was responsible for administering and planning Clark County’s legislative initiatives, franchise agreements, emergency management, policy and program development, and strategic planning efforts.

In August of 1999, Reilly departed from Clark County to accept a position as associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He has instructed a number of graduate level courses in public administration and social work, and is on currently on faculty at UNLV as a professor (adjunct) in the department of public administration.

Reilly holds both a master’s degree and doctorate of public administration from the University of Southern California (USC), a master of social work from Arizona State University, and a B.A. from Memphis State University. He is the author of numerous peer-refereed academic articles and is active in numerous community organizations and serves on the editorial boards for the journals, Public Administration Review (PAR) and Administration in Social Work.

In October 2005, Reilly was elected a fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). The academy is the preeminent independent, non-profit organization