(Courtesy of Steve Rankel, Product180, LLC. 2006)

Tom is a powerful speaker, leader and example in successfully launching complex services, websites and applications.

Tom hails originally from Brooklyn, NY and is still a Mets fan (this is a good year for that). Tom’s early jaunts took him to upstate New York as a gearhead and motorhead. He drove a 1940 Willys Jeep and regularly did nutty things like dropping the transmission while on a trip to fix it.

A gifted organizer, Tom’s innate ability to create order and structure out of random or complex patterns led him to Berklee School of Music where he majored in Music Composition. Tom’s instrument of choice was the drums, which was later changed to the tapping on the keys of a computer, to his wife’s great lament.

Tom is a choreographer, leader and organizer at heart. In the previous 4 years as CEO of eScotto.net, Inc., he and his team have worked with over 80 clients to launch software and web-based products into dozens of industries. Tom’s specific work has included market requirements definition, functional spec creation, information architecture, managing developers, leading project teams, managing release deadlines and hitting major milestones.

In the previous 10 years, Tom worked at a large nonprofit where he was the lead in launching 60 (not a typo) unique custom-coded software products in areas as diverse as messaging, email, reporting, project management, help desk, inventory, content management, product versioning & release and even led the creation of a custom Project Management System (MS Project just couldn’t cut it).

He has trained and worked with customers in more than 75 countries.

One of his most exciting projects was developing a global messaging application that had to be designed so it worked in Lagos, Nigeria, a location that had only 2 hours of power a day, 4 days a week and used 9600 baud modems. Oh yes, the product also had to have full functionality for customers in New York City using high-speed internet connections.

Tom is an athlete and a competitive cyclist who is the GM and coach of the Quad Cycles Racing Team in Arlington, MA. He is the founder of Stage5 Cycling, a company that serves the needs of recreational to elite cyclists.

Tom resides in Arlington, MA with his wife and 3 children, all of whom think he’s nuts because at the annual family reunion, he leaves at 5am and bikes 100+ miles to get there while the family leaves several hours later in the minivan and tries to catch up to him.

Tom, as you can tell, is a passionate, accomplished guy.