The Suffolk Unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs has a new executive director.

Tyron Riddick, 25, is taking over after the former director, Reggie Carter, was promoted.

Carter takes a split position that formerly supervised all 11 clubs in the Southeastern Virginia region. Now, Carter will supervise the Suffolk and Franklin clubs as well as the three in Portsmouth, and another person supervises the other six.

“It’s hard to come behind Mr. Reggie,” Riddick said. “He has set the bar real high.”

Riddick is a Norfolk State University student and has about a year left on his business management degree. He has been heavily involved in the community, having been on the National Night Out planning committee; a member of the Youth Advisory Council and part of the panel, at age 14, that hired the city’s first youth coordinator; a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s youth council and a state board member for the NAACP; and an organizer of the Suffolk Citywide Gospel Concert.

He has also been a Suffolk Public Schools bus driver and led an organization called Straighten Up and Fly Right, which works with children. He knows many of the children in the club through those jobs.

“I’m very excited,” he said. “I want to make an impactful difference.”

Riddick said he hopes to assess the club’s offerings and eventually add to them, especially in the performing arts and sports.

“I do want to maximize the performing arts component,” he said.

Boys and Girls Clubs provide low-cost after-school and summer programs, where children get food, homework help and a variety of enrichment programs. The Suffolk Unit is housed at John F. Kennedy Middle School.

Riddick has been in training for about a week and will be starting with the club next week.

“I have had a crash course on Boys and Girls Clubs,” Riddick said. “I’m just excited about the next chapter of my life.”