About Me

Tom has founded and run multiple venture-backed tech startups, and has been an executive in high-growth private and publicly-traded corporate environments. He currently leads a sales team responsible for a $500M pipeline in a publicly traded company. Tom has learned how to lead teams of extremely high-performing creatives and technologists by honing leadership traits like transparency, empathy, vision, and inspiration. His authentic leadership style helps him to build deep, trusting relationships on his teams, which leads to extreme productivity and highly creative environments. He has an MBA from Georgia State University, holds multiple patents, and is a US Army veteran, having served as both a combat medic and satellite controller. He lives in Atlanta with his wife of 20 years and two teenage children.

In August of 2022, Tom was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and given less than two months to live. Six months of multiple hospitalizations, chemotherapy, and a handful of near-death experiences helped Tom to realize that of all the things he has done in his career, inspiring and mentoring others was the most rewarding and energizing for him. 

With a second chance at life, Tom is leaning into these skills. Tom started Vertical Motion to mentor aspiring and emerging executives on how to build their own executive style, executive presence and executive network. With 13 years experience in VP and C-level executive roles in high-growth environments, Tom has the advantage of having sat in the executive chair himself, and is excited to mentor and energize an entirely new generation of business leaders on how to become the best, most authentic leaders they can be.