Thomas Cross

Mr. Cross brings 31 years of corporate experience as a senior executive and 10 years as consultant, program manager, case writer and teacher for over 60 corporate, government and military executive development courses. He is known as a passionate, hands-on facilitator providing executive learning solutions for the toughest organization problems. He spent 10 years leading new business development at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President of Marketing for Office Depot, Tenneco Automotive and Hardee's and Vice President of Marketing for PepsiCo/KFC. His career began with 13 years of industrial marketing and engineering at DuPont, Exxon Chemical and Devoe Paint. Tom has an MBA (Case Western Reserve University) and a BS in chemical engineering (Case Institute of Technology). He has worked with clients from a broad variety of industries:

• Aerospace Defense - Curtiss-Wright
• Chemicals - Eastman Chemical, Corning
• Distributors - Ferguson Enterprises, National Industries for the Blind, UniPro Food Service, Wolseley
• Energy - AES, AREVA, Nuclear Energy Institute, Westinghouse
• Financial Services - Capital One, CIGNA, State Farm Insurance
• Government Agencies - Central Intelligence Agency, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, National Ground Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, State Legislative Leaders Foundation, Treasury Acquisition Institute, Veteran's Administration
• Military - Air Force, Army, Navy, Defense Contract Management Agency, Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, Marine Corps
• Professional Services - Brookings Institute, C2 Technologies, CACI, Calibre, Center for Logistics Research, CINTAS, Competitive Innovations, Cycle Systems, Engility, FlightSafety International, L3-COM MPRI, Pitney-Bowes, SAIC, Sapient, Serco, Team Carney
• Retail - Advance Auto Parts, American Standard Brands, CarMax, Expedia, Home Depot
• Telecommunications - AOL Time Warner, MCI, WorldCom

Mr. Cross' expertise includes change management; strategic thinking, leadership, sourcing, decision-making and communications; diversity and inclusion; and marketing and selling. He has published more than 40 Darden business cases on leadership, ethical decision-making, competitive strategy, value-based selling, strategic sourcing, manufacturing and human capital strategy. He has published articles in the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Brand Week, Undercar Digest, Plant Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mining Engineering and The Oil and Gas Journal. He has spoken to groups of business, marketing and military leaders.