Tom’s love of software development began when his family brought home a Texas Instruments TI99/A. He was only 8 years old, and growing up in a rural town in Connecticut, it provided him ample time to open the manual and learn the basics of programming in between exploring his interests in sports, art, music, math and science.

By the time his college experience at the University of Vermont (UVM) began, he was already realizing his potential after being exposed to a multitude of programming concepts, languages and hardware elements. In fact, by the summer of 1992, he took on an internship role at a small company in Cheshire Connecticut called Asset Management Technologies where he was exposed to some of the first ever handheld / mobile technology available. There he learned to leverage various app development tools, how to build apps that simplified complex business logic, utilize barcode technology, drive printers, leverage various storage and communication mediums and more. He quickly understood the potential of the technology, and how it, if used correctly, would change the world.

In May of 1994, Tom graduated from UVM with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Music and returned to CT where he took on a full-time role at the same company he had been interning at. Over the course of about two years, he thrived in the chaotic world of technology turnover. He quickly gravitated to the power of object-oriented design, abstraction, clean coding, specification writing and “black box” testing so that productivity levels would remain even when technology came and went. It was a wild time.

Even with all this newfound success however, something was still missing. Tom found himself longing for Vermont and the life he left behind. It took some time, but in the Summer of 1996 Tom made the tough decision to leave his dream job and return to Vermont to toke a job at a startup called Stepsoft. There he would go onto to learn advanced database technologies, the power of scripting languages, and how to use them to abstract the low-level layers of a computer away from its ever-evolving world of the desktop above.

There was no mobile technology involved there, but the short-lived experience would still add to the foundation of Tom’s mobile career. After the startup shutdown 8 months later, he was able to secure a job at Green Mountain Software, a Vermont consulting firm that offered similar work to what he had been doing in CT. The mobile technology was different and the projects more diverse and impactful, but he was able to hone his desktop, mobile and eventually web-based skills even more to help the company go on to make some killer business mobile solutions over the years. In fact, even after his departure in 2003 to start what eventually would became Empower Mobility, GMSW would seek Tom out for a number of mobile consulting projects. Those opportunities, in addition to the others Tom had cultivated on his own, would help Empower thrive into what it has become today.

It’s been a wild ride so far, and while Tom now has over 30 years of professional experience in the mobile space under his belt, his journey is far from over. While he continues to maintain a small, select client base, he looks to branch into the product space, a move long overdue in the eyes of many. Stay tuned!

While Tom is not working at Empower, he can be found in Vermont spending time with his dog Finn, family and friends. In more recent years, he can be found playing competitive pool in a local amateur pool league.

Finn has been a staple at Empower since the beginning.  A beloved addition to the team, Finn brings a warmth and joy to the work environment that is unmatched, and we cannot imagine the place without him.

When he’s not sleeping on his favorite bed or facilitating a meeting at Empower, he can be found going through the legs of those he greets in an effort to deposit copious amounts of fur upon their black garments.

He’s good like that.