Meet Stefano McGhee, DTM

Toastmasters’ 2026–2027 International President, Stefano McGhee, DTM, likes to joke he joined Toastmasters because his wife made him. But in all fairness, it isn’t a joke. His wife, Jennifer, joined Toastmasters first, in 2000, to prepare for a job that required her to do public speaking.

For five years, her time at Toastmasters was his time to play video games. He occasionally went to club meetings, first as a guest, then when they needed a meeting role filled. Eventually, he realized he was having so much fun that he wanted to give a speech.

At that point, he says, club leaders told him, “Nah, you gotta pay!” That’s when he joined.

Answering the “Why” of Leadership

McGhee officially joined Network Voice Toastmasters Club in 2005, and is still a member. Once onboard, it only took a year before he jumped on the leadership track. His first role was Club President. After that came Area Governor, then Division Governor, then a variety of District leadership positions, some of which he did twice, and then the International Board of Directors. In 2023, he was elected Second Vice President.

His love of leadership is also a love of answering the question “why?” McGhee says he figured out there are three types of people: people who like things the way they are, people who wish things would change, and people who actually do something about it.

And as he went through Toastmasters, people would bring him questions and complaints: Why do we have to do it that way? Why is it like this? Why can’t I do that?

“So I said I’m going to figure out why is this the way that it is. And it just kept going from there—find out what’s broken, do something about it, listen to the people that are complaining, and say, ‘Yeah, that does stink. Maybe we could do something about that.’”

He learned that that little leap—from just complaining to actually fixing or understanding a problem—is one a lot of people aren’t willing to take. But for him, that leap is where the fun is.

“Even getting to where people can say ‘Oh, that’s why. Okay, I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand why’ is rewarding,” he says, adding that most adults are okay with things once they understand the why.

“And that’s when I got hooked on Toastmasters. How can you do more good? How can you listen to more people? How can you show them that the system works for them? Or how we try to make it work for them. It doesn’t always work. I don’t always succeed, but that’s what drives me. That’s why I’m still here.”

Toastmasters at Work

In his professional life, McGhee is the senior director of technology operations at Harvard Business Publishing, and he was previously in the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard.

He credits Toastmasters for teaching him the skills he needed to put together a speech and deliver it, something that has helped him advance in his career.

He first demonstrated his communication prowess in the military when they needed someone to present bystander awareness training (what to do if you witness something wrong or problematic in the workplace). No one wanted to address this sensitive topic, but McGhee figured Toastmasters had prepared him for this.

“I volunteered and I did it, and people were like ‘Wow, you actually know what you’re doing.’ And yes, it’s a tough subject, but you can pull people in, tell them stories.”

He uses those same skills today in his presentations, particularly the data-heavy ones, and he says Toastmasters has taught him how to transform the abstract into something comprehensible.

“How do you convince CEO and C-suite types that we should spend $150,000 extra here to save $450,000 here? How do you show that? Or if you’re talking to non-technical people, how do you explain we’re moving 75 terabytes worth of data? What does 75 terabytes worth of data look like?”

To explain terabytes he likes to use this analogy: “Say you grab a bag of popcorn, sit down on your couch, and watch a James Bond movie non-stop 4,000 times. You’re getting close if you watch it for this many years to get to this number of terabytes.”

Family Time

While McGhee has lived most of his life in the state of Massachusetts, he was born in Italy, and his mother is Italian. His dad was in the military, and the family lived in Italy, California, Germany, and finally Massachusetts where he has lived since.

He’s currently pursuing getting his Italian citizenship, and says his fluency in Italian depends on who you ask (his wife is impressed; his mother, not so much).

He and his wife have one son, Tucker, who attends the University of New Hampshire, and a beagle named Trevor.

Tucker played soccer throughout high school, and father and son still enjoy watching games together, particularly the World Cup games this past summer. As a longtime fan of soccer, McGhee can be found most fall weekends on the pitch, serving as a referee for youth (ages 6–18) soccer games, something he’s been doing since the pandemic when referees were desperately needed.

The McGhees are also avid boaters, either taking day trips around the islands in the Boston Harbor (McGhee has become well versed in the rich history of the area), or doing short overnight trips. They’ve also recently all taken up golf and enjoy skiing together as well.

More Recreation, More Leadership

In addition to his Toastmasters role, McGhee is also poised to become the commodore (the elected leader) of a local yacht club next year—and whatever image that conjures up for you, he says to bring it way down, explaining that it’s nothing fancy. He compares that club’s structure similarly to Toastmasters but on a much, much smaller scale. He loves the challenge of uncovering the whys and what-ifs there as well.

“I wouldn’t have even dreamed of this job if it wasn’t for Toastmasters. Wouldn’t even have thought about it. But I can put together a presentation deck and explain the whys. I know how to talk to people. I know how to use Robert’s Rules in our meetings.

“It’s been fun taking Toastmasters leadership skills and applying them to a nonprofit that has nothing to do with Toastmasters. That’s been educational—stressful, but educational.”

When he’s not on the water, you’re likely to find McGhee up in the skies. He first learned to fly in 2018, fulfilling a lifelong fascination with flight. He had to step away for a few years when work and other activities took precedence, but he recently joined a flying club.

“I call it delightfully terrifying,” he says of piloting a plane by himself. “When I’m up there there’s no roadside assistance, there is no instructor. There is only me. I have to bail myself out if [anything goes wrong].”

He finds the deep focus of flying to be relaxing. “There’s no thinking about what was going on at work, or those bylaws at all the meetings you go to. You are locked into the airplane; you need to know what’s going on around you and look at all the gauges. So yeah, it’s relaxing because you are only focused on one thing.”

That intense focus allows him to see the bigger picture, like the colorful summer beach umbrellas and beach clubs dotting the coast of Block Island as he flies above or the technicolor greens, yellows, reds, and oranges of New England on a clear fall day.

And, as in boating, his renewed interest in flying has led to an interest in what goes on behind the scenes—he’s already on a committee at the flying club reviewing their 21-year-old bylaws.

Another passion of McGhee’s is the motorcycle. For the past 19 years, this has been his favorite method for getting around on the ground, whether that is heading to work (about a 20-mile/32-km ride one-way, which he does regularly unless the weather dips well below freezing) or taking long rides along the south coast of Massachusetts.

The Coming Year

McGhee is excited about the endless possibilities for Toastmasters in the coming years. While recognizing that he is just one person, he also hopes to inspire and help more people see the power of the organization and what it can do for others.

But he recognizes that change often comes from the roots, and that’s where he wants to focus.

“Change doesn’t start with World Headquarters. It doesn’t start with the Board of Directors. It starts with: What do you feel when you walk into the door of your club? If that’s good, things are going to turn out great, but if it doesn’t, it’s not. It’s just not. So it is incumbent upon all of us to remember how we felt when we came in the door—the warmth, the sense of wonder, the sense that you could do more, be more, that you had that support.”

He recognizes that while having a stellar education program and a nimble online experience are important and make things smoother, the main thing is what happens in the club, and having excited and motivated members. What sticks is what happens in the club and having members so excited and motivated.

“That’s the part where I feel like we got lost. I’m trying to figure out how do we bring that back. How do we get back to the basics?”

He hopes he can motivate people to see their own possibilities by being vulnerable himself, and staying authentic, even if that looks different than people might expect from an International President.

“I know there have been leaders where you think, I could never be that person. I’d never be that good, and I don’t want to do that. I want to be somebody that you could look at and say, I could do that, I could be that, because if I can make you realize that, then you might work toward it yourself.”

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