In 1984, Tom graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelors Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Foreign Affairs. He worked as an engineer with Grumman Aerospace (now Northrop Grumman). After earning an MBA from MIT-Sloan in 1989, Tom went to work for British Petroleum in London as a financial analyst. Three years later, he moved to Houston with BP as the founding trader for BP Gas. In 1994, he became Vice President of Commodities Trading for Chemical Bank, starting its New York trading group. In 1996, he joined Enron to lead a number of marketing and trading groups. In his last assignment with Enron, he formed and led CommodityLogic LLC, an online post-transaction processing solution for global commodity markets. Following the dissolution of Enron in December 2001, Tom founded and served as President and CEO of CLPartnersInc, a software consulting firm.

See also: 12.15 pm Lunch