Tom Comery

Tom started his career as a Division Controller for an innovative new entrant in the world of commodity lumber products. He quickly realized that while accountants get to keep score, they don’t get to play the game, so he accepted a sales territory and never looked back. He learned that change in the Building Products Industry is difficult but with real innovation and a well-executed strategy, one company can change an industry. In eight years, he saw the Company grow from $100 million to over $1 billion, which led to its acquisition by a major competitor.

He was recruited to lead Georgia Pacific’s entrance into the new product category and at $21 billion, GP was the industry’s largest commodity producer. The new category grew to $1 billion on an enterprise basis in his 10 years there and Tom was promoted to Group Director of all specialty building products. During that tenure he served two years with McKinsey & Co. as part of the executive team commissioned to re-engineer the Company’s $6 billion distribution division. This was one of the most formative of Tom’s experiences, adding continuous improvement, Six Sigma and TPS to his tool kit.

These early career experiences prepared Tom to go on to lead a series of acquisition assimilations, turnarounds, start-ups, and strategic exits including categories ranging from engineered wood products, to fasteners, various steel products, LED lighting and chemical technology.

Tom has a B.A. Accounting and Management from Otterbein University and attended Aurora University’s MBA program and Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management Executive program “Accelerating Sales Force Performance”. He holds various continuing education certificates including University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Business Strategy.