An Interview with Logos CEO, Bill McCarthy

Recently, Kristen Tetteh sat down with Bill McCarthy, our new CEO, to interview him about his life, work experience, and what drew him to Logos. Watch or read the short interview below!

Kristen Tetteh: So, who is Bill McCarthy?

Bill McCarthy: Oh, the existential question—yeah, that’s a big one. I’m married to a very beautiful woman named Sharon. We have three kids, all married and living in Raleigh. We have two grandchildren. I love sports, water activities, and almost anything adventurous. Most of it I love to do with my family and share with them.

Kristen Tetteh: You have deep experience in business and technology. You’ve served in leadership at Cisco Systems, Appian, and Infoblox. Tell us about your heart for serving the church and how you plan to do that here at Logos.

Bill McCarthy: I had the benefit of being around the best leaders in the world. That’s the truth. When I was at Cisco, there were amazing people, and I learned something every day about how to build a business, drive strategy, and create a great team environment. Just amazing access to some of the best people in the entire world.

Kristen Tetteh: So was being the CEO of a tech company that serves the church always the dream?

Bill McCarthy: Being the CEO of a tech company that serves the church was never a dream of mine. I’ve been in CEO training in some companies, and when I think about it, it was never a passion of mine. My desire has always been to influence, organize, and drive things. If I were here doing a different role, I’d be completely fine with that. It doesn’t have to be CEO. But if I’m in this role, I want to serve the company as best I can. Given what we do and the people we work with—and have the privilege to work with—I don’t want to mess up anything. I want us, as a team, to really do the best we can as we go forward.

Kristen Tetteh: You decided to step into this role of leadership. Tell us about that decision-making process for you, and why you ultimately chose to take on this mantle of responsibility.

Bill McCarthy: I always hoped that in the later stages of my life, I would be able to do more with the church. That was always important to me. There are parachurch organizations and churches that I love being involved in. When this phone call came in about taking a look at Logos, it was the only time in my entire life I felt my heart kind of jump. I could physically feel it. I thought, “I think I’m supposed to do this. I think that’s what I’m supposed to do.” I want to do this with the right heart and with the right character before God, but I also want to do it so that I can help what we’ve done over thirty-two years become the platform for what we do for the next thirty-two years or sixty-four years.

Kristen Tetteh: Tell us about your relationship with Scripture. What have you been learning recently?

Bill McCarthy: The biggest shift in my Bible study is going verse by verse and trying to understand some of the original language and culturally what was happening. I think I shared a story once. I just learned this from a pastor I listened to. If you read in Genesis 5 the genealogy from Adam to Noah, it seems like such benign verses in the Bible. Yet each one of those names tells the story of God providing his Son to redeem the world. It’s the story of Christ in the first couple of chapters of the Bible. I would never know that if I didn’t have teaching that allowed me to go deep.

The more I go deep (this is my own personal experience), the deeper I understand the truth of the Bible, the more I relate to the character of who God is, the more I’m drawn to be in a loving relationship with him—not for any other purpose than just to say, “I just want to be close to my Father. Your character is perfect, and I can trust your Word and who you are.” I want others to find that when the truth of the Word of God makes that connection with your soul. Life change takes place. If there is one thing that is absolutely clear in today’s culture, life change is the whole trickshot on societies changing, families changing, cities changing nations changing.

The radical aspect of what Jesus did wasn’t to come and take over the Romans. The radical aspect was to say, “I’m going to take over your heart, and when I do that, the kingdom will be established.” The pastors we support and the individuals we lean upon understand that very well. I want to be a part of helping equip them to do it as best they possibly can.

Kristen Tetteh: Well, Bill, I want to thank you so much for your time today and for the vision that you have put in front of our team. A very aspirational vision—

Bill McCarthy: It has been the gift of a lifetime.