RYAN WILSON

Ryan Wilson is the Co-founder and CEO of The Gathering Spot. A Georgetown University and Georgetown Law graduate, he raised the initial capital to launch the membership community in Atlanta in 2016 at age 24 and has since built it into one of the country’s most influential platforms for creatives, professionals, and entrepreneurs. More than a club, TGS has become a home for groundbreaking ideas, culturally significant events, and the connections that turn ambition into outcomes.

 

At the core of his work is a thesis about how opportunity is actually created: through relationships, social capital, and the institutions that connect people to each other. His life’s work has been to build that infrastructure at scale.

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Today, The Gathering Spot is home to a community of more than 12,000 members and operates three physical locations: its Atlanta flagship, Retreat by The Gathering Spot in Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. Member communities extend to New York City, Detroit, Charlotte, Houston, and Chicago. The company has raised more than $30 million in funding. Its stages have hosted many of the most consequential voices of our time, including a former U.S. president, leaders of the country’s largest companies, and some of the biggest artists and cultural figures in the world. After a 2022 acquisition by a fintech company, Ryan and his co-founder reacquired The Gathering Spot in late 2023, reaffirming their commitment to its independence and mission.

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Ryan has received the Phoenix Award, Atlanta’s highest civic honor, and been recognized by Goldman Sachs as one of its Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. The Atlanta Business Chronicle named him Small Business Person of the Year and listed him among its 40 Under Forty. He has appeared on The Root 100, the Ebony Power 100, and Atlanta Magazine’s 500 Most Powerful Leaders. In 2023, the Association for Fundraising Professionals named him Philanthropic Leader of Tomorrow. The Gathering Spot has also received national recognition, including Inc. Magazine’s 2025 Best Companies for Doing Social Good, with Retreat listed by Modern Luxury among Atlanta’s five best membership clubs.

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Ryan’s work extends beyond TGS. He serves as a judge on Revolt’s Bet on Black, a Telly Award-winning series spotlighting Black entrepreneurs. He has also used community infrastructure to mobilize people around entrepreneurship, economic opportunity, and civic participation: leading a national small business platform during the 2024 presidential cycle that reached 75,000 people, co-chairing Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ successful re-election campaign, and serving as a featured speaker for BET’s national voting program. Georgetown University recognized his impact with the Marcia G. Cooke Award, given to alumni who have made a significant mark within 15 years of graduation.

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A sought-after speaker and moderator, Ryan has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Adweek, Inc., The New York Times, Black Enterprise, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He has delivered keynotes for Goldman Sachs, Delta, Google, Meta, Ford Motor Company, Nike, White & Case, and Coca-Cola, and at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2025, his work became the subject of a business school case study on influencer marketing in higher education, co-developed by Kennesaw State University and Ivey Business School, examining his partnership with an MBA program to expand its reach and grow enrollment.

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A native of Atlanta, Ryan is deeply committed to the city that shaped him. He serves on the boards of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, where he chairs the Governance Committee, as well as The King Center, Goodwill of North Georgia, The Carter Center, The Woodruff Arts Center, the Fox Theater, Usher’s New Look, the Atlanta Business League, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the 100 Black Men and the Atlanta Rotary Club, and graduated from Leadership Atlanta as a member of the Class of 2026.

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He serves on the Georgetown University Board of Regents and lives in Atlanta with his wife and two children.