Sean P. Hartness, a Greenville native, is actively involved in real estate development in Greenville and Charleston, S.C.

Mr. Hartness earned a B.A. in History in 1992 from the University of South Carolina. In 1993, he joined Hartness International (HI), a global packaging and machinery manufacturing company. After four years as their Western Regional Sales Manager, he was promoted to Sales Director for Asia Pacific.

He began his role as Global Sales Director in 1999. In this role, he opened offices in Singapore and Germany, and managed partnerships with HI agents in 90 countries.

His role shifted in 2001, when he became the General Manager of HI’s Dynac Division, where he managed their relationship with Tetra Pak, one of their largest customers.

In 2005, Mr. Hartness became Chief Operating Officer of Hartness International. Four years later, he helped lead negotiations for the sale of HI to Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a Fortune 200 publicly traded company. He remained at HI as Vice President until 2013.

After leaving Hartness International, he led an effort to develop the Homestead at Hartness, an innovative, single family rental community of 140 homes that is now one of the fastest growing multi-family asset classes in the world. He also established King and Society, a full-service real estate, construction and management company based in Charleston, SC, and opened the Quarters on King, a boutique hotel on King Street.

In 2016, he formed Hartness Development, which has overseen the development and building of the Hartness community, an innovative mixed-use, new urban community in Greenville. The 500-acre site will ultimately include over 1000 homes and 350,000 square feet of commercial, retail, and restaurant space. In order to more efficiently execute this vision, he established Hartness Construction in 2017.

That same year, Mr. Hartness reconnected with his family’s roots by leading efforts to found Motus US, LLC, a robotics and automation company focused on sustainable, renewable, and recyclable materials.

In late 2022, Hartness Hotel, a boutique hotel with restaurant and spa, will open in Greenville. The expansion and renovation of the Quarters on King, which will feature a new restaurant, will open in early 2023.

Mr. Hartness believes strongly in giving back to the community. In 2021, he helped lead efforts to develop Crescent SC, an entrepreneurial and innovation district on Poinsett Highway. Located on the former site of Piedmont Shirt Factory and his family’s Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, Crescent SC is a partnership between Flywheel Coworking, Furman University, SCBIO, SCRA, NEXT, and 6AM City, among others.

Currently, he serves on the Greenville Revitalization Corporation, and chairs the board of Triple Tree Aerodrome. He is a past board member of the Board of Visitors of Airplane Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), and the boards of the Greenville County Museum of Art, the Community Foundation of Greenville, Inc., and the Peace Center for Performing Arts.

He has served on the Furman Advisory Council and has been a member of the President’s Club, Trustees Circle, Richard Furman Society, Paladin Club and Founders Circle. He became Trustee Emeritus at Furman in 2021, and is currently chairing Furman’s Master Planning sub-committee of Furman’s Foundation Board.

Mr. Hartness is an active pilot and aviation enthusiast. He is a member of the Society of International Business Fellows and of First Baptist Greenville.

He is married to Dr. Courtney Tollison Hartness ‘99, who serves on the faculty at Furman. They have four children.