Meet Tom
As public servants, Port Commissioners should be knowledgeable on the issues, have the experience to get the job done and show a commitment to serving our community. I believe I possess these qualifications.
As your commissioner, I will draw on years of experience as a civil engineer and project manager, leading the Municipal League of King County, and owning and operating several businesses. I will do my best to serve the people of our region by energetically applying what I know and being actively engaged in learning what I don't.
Professional experience
I graduated from the University of Washington in 1985, working nights at United Parcel Service to put myself through school. After graduation, I continued with UPS for several years before leaving for more entrepreneurial pursuits. I sold real estate for a time until 1991, when I became a manager, and eventually an owner, in my first business - a construction firm in North Seattle.
I founded Seattle Monorail Services, the private operator of the publicly-owned Seattle Center Monorail, with several partners in 1994 and assumed full ownership in 2008. Today, Seattle Monorail Services is proud to be collaborating with the City of Seattle on refurbishing and stewarding this icon so it continues to serve our community for many years to come.
From 1999 until we merged with MD-IT this year, I owned and managed Pro-Scribe, a medical documentation firm that serves health care providers throughout the Northwest. Pro-Scribe grew in these 10 years from five to over 100 employees through dynamic technical innovation, operational excellence and dedication to serving both our customers and employees. Now that we are a part of MD-IT, we are working with our customers to help them adopt electronic health records.
Civic leadership
I became directly involved with the issues facing our elected leaders through the Municipal League of King County, a nonpartisan “good government” group that has served voters in our region for almost 100 years. I started as a member of the League's Candidate Evaluation Committee in 1997 and served on the Board of Directors from 1999-2004. In 2000, I was elected by my fellow board members to serve as Chairman, a position I held from 2000 through 2002.
Later I led the League's effort to launch the Regional Governance Project. This joint effort of the League, the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, the Cascadia Center, the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and Washington Appleseed worked to increase awareness of the need for governance reform to better address regional issues.
I was honored as an emerging local leader in 2000, with my selection as an American Marshall Memorial Fellow, which allowed me to spend a month traveling throughout Europe listening and learning from leaders in every walk of life. I have continued to support the organization's mission in several ways, including serving on the Regional Selection Committee since 2005, and as a member of the Planning and Host Committee of the Marshall Forum in 2006.
Prior to these activities, I drew on my technical and transportation background while serving on the Downtown Urban Center Planning Group in 1999, as a member of the King County Metro - North Seattle Sounding Board in 1998 and when Chairing the city's Seattle Downtown Circulation Study from 1996-98.
Community Involvement
In 2004, I had the privilege of participating in Leadership Tomorrow, a program of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, over the last two decades, I have been active as a youth basketball coach and volunteer at St. Therese School and parish, with Campi Preschool and a Leschi Elementary School parent volunteer, while also holding a variety of positions with our local Boy Scout troop.
Personal history
I have proudly called Seattle home since 1980, when I moved here to attend the University of Washington. It was there that I married my wife Tina and, after graduating with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1985, we started a family. Our son lives in Los Angeles and our youngest daughter is a college student in Washington (D.C.). Our oldest daughter just graduated from college and has since been running the campaign and telling her dad what to do.