Tom has spent his life creating value through creative win-win scenarios. Whether focusing on a new project visions,  providing a-typical services to a client (such as accelerated timelines), or simply looking outside the box to cut costs or resolve a difficult issue, Tom is motivated by his practical background grounded in varied experience including managing professional engineering, architectural, general construction, earthwork, and sales staff.

 

Born and raised in Sanatoga, Pennsylvania - Tom spent his youth on a farm working the land and raising aniamals.  He is the son of a proud tire-making father and artistically creative mother. A graduate of Mansfield University in 1980, Tom holds a Bachelors of Arts in Land Use Planning and Geography, as well as a certification in Professional Land Surveying Review (1984-85 from Drexel University). Before coming to work in his hometown community, he took his first job in Washington, D.C. in the United States Department of Transportation - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) working under both the Carter and Reagan administrations.
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Tom worked with an FRA team investigating if practical to strategically electrify the United States' railroad lines (versus the current diesel option) - avoiding reliance on foreign oil. He soon moved into the private sector and joined the then Missouri-Pacific Railroad (later Union Pacific), where, after intensive training, he oversaw railroad construction throughout Louisisiana and Texas as a Roadmaster.  After two years on the job, Tom returned to his hometown and joined partner Robert McKinney, P.E.  at  McKinney Associates, Inc. 

For six years, Tom worked with Bob McKinney to substantially grow their engineering company - (from a meager staff of six to twenty five), forming an Earth Enterprises (an excavation and site work company) with revenues over $5 Million the first year, and forming a real estate development division. Tom managed the wide variety of all of their projects - designing roads, bridges, and buildings; performing land surveying and all sorts of land development projects, subdivisions, various civil-structural-environmental engineering; and assisted many residential-commercial-industrial clients with designs/approvals/and compliance with local and federal environmental regulations. Tom's staff worked large earth moving projects with quarries and on special environmentally sensitive commercial/industrial projects" (see Chester County Living article 1999).  

 

Tom bought Bob McKinney out of his earth moving and real estate divisions in 1989 and went out on his own.   Regardless of the 1990 recession, Tom's business exploded with Earth Enterprises awarded two major turn-key world class private golf course projects (see "Stonewall" and "Bellewood" for details) while continuing to supply land planning, civil engineering, and earthwork services to many land development, private-public, commercial, and industrial clients.

     

Tom's business flourished and Earth Enterprises became a major development/planning force in Chester County - with a growing portfolio.  At times, Tom found himself most of the time managing a staff close to one hundred - from engineers, architects, surveyors, designers, equipment operators, and upper management staff.  

 

Still, Tom made time to cater to his conservation interests by protecting key properties in West Vincent Township, Warwick Township, and Cumru Township of Berks County. He also maintained a revolving operation of rehabilitating old dilapidated Chester County properties - redesigning and renovating them into cozy homesteads.  

 

From 2005 - 2010, Tom assembled a large group of properties and began the revitalization of St. Peters Village - a residential and commercial project.   The project included a $100 Million residential development component (see St. Peters Village Project).   Alongside this massive project, Tom continued to increase his involvement in purchasing a list of projects in the Montgomery/Chester County areas - See "Bigger Projects."  

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In 2016, after years of witnessing America's game of golf experiencing an enormous decline in golf play, Tom took on the challenge of providing a solution and wrote 'The 12-Hole Standard, plus 6-Hole Half-Round,' published in January 2017 and release at the PGA Golf Show in Orlando, Florida.  Tom  heads up his new Bellwether Solutions, Inc. company providing 'outside the box' solutions for clients looking for a fresh approach to any problem or issue.

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