Paul Chitwood is president of the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention, where he leads the work of Southern Baptists’ 3,500-plus international missionaries around the globe, as well as hundreds of home-office support staff in Richmond, Virginia. Chitwood was elected to this role in November 2018.  
 
Chitwood previously served as executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention from 2011-2018. For 18 years prior to that, he served as the pastor of local churches of varying sizes in Kentucky. 
 
Prior to his election as IMB president, Chitwood served as executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, the state’s largest religious organization with 750,000 members in 2,400 churches and 70 associations. He served in the role from 2011-2018. Under his leadership, the Kentucky convention saw an increase in churches planted and in the number of Kentucky Baptists involved in volunteer mission work, both locally and globally.
 
For 18 years, Chitwood served as the pastor of local churches of varying sizes: First Baptist Church, Mt. Washington (2003-2011); First Baptist Church of Somerset (1999-2003); First Baptist Church of Owenton (1995-1999); and South Fork Baptist Church in Owenton (1993-1995). As a pastor, his churches averaged giving 18.5% through the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ unified plan for supporting the work of the SBC. During his pastorates, he served as chairman of the International Mission Board’s trustees from 2008-2010, part of his tenure as an IMB trustee from 2002-2010. 
 
A native of Jellico, Tenn., Chitwood is a 1992 graduate of Cumberland College. He earned the Master of Divinity and Ph.D. degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a master’s degree in nonprofit administration from the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.
 
He and his wife, Michelle, have four children.