Over 25 years of CEO experience in government /defense, technology, food manufacturing, restaurants, and China. Tom is a goal setting, serial entrepreneur who believes in discipline and focus in achieving those goals. He has been very successful following the principle of keeping it as simple and understandable as possible. Coaching has always been Tom’s passion and
management style.
Tom currently co-owns and co-operates a successful restaurant group in the Washington DC area. Tom bootstrapped his first software company at age twenty-seven with $10,000 and grew it to number 134 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately held companies, and was one of the Deloitte Fast 500 fastest growing tech companies for four straight years. After ten years and only one capital raise, Tom was able to successfully sell his company to a leading international security software company. During that time, Tom also owned a company in Shenzhen, China doing primarily commercial real estate management, and it was one the few wholly foreign owned entities in China at that time.
As a hired-gun President of a publicly-traded, international food manufacturing business, Tom helped grow the company stock price from $.30 when he arrived to $7.15 when he daparted. At the end of his tenure, Tom temporarily moved his family to Paris to lead an upscale food brand featuring some of the most famous chefs in the world. Tom has served on a number of for profit and non-profit boards to include the Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Among many long-distance hikes, Tom successfully hiked the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail averaging a marathon a day for 85 consecutive days in 2017, and he recently authored a book about the experience, A Cool Breeze on The Appalachian Trail, which utilized the strategy and lessons he has learned in business. Tom is an ultra-marathoner and has run in the Army Ten Miler in Washington DC fifteen consecutive years, and he qualified for and ran in the Boston Marathon at the age of fifty.
Tom has been a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) for over twenty years including many years of leadership on the local and regional Boards. Prior to that, he was a member of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). Tom is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Washington DC Area, and he co-hosted a local radio show that coached entrepreneurs to start-up and run businesses. He also co-hosted a podcast for the NFL Players Association on transitioning to business after football. Tom has fifteen years of experience coaching youth sports and Special Olympics (soccer, basketball and running). Tom has taught at universities in Shanghai and Chengdu China.