Thomas A. Powell
Senior Advisor
Tom has fashioned a career out of helping companies make the transition from informal styles of entrepreneurial management to more robust processes that can support the rigors of growth, while keeping the creative sparks that launched the company alive. Although he typically holds a senior VP and/or CFO title, success has come from the formulation and implementation of strategy coupled with basic management disciplines across all functional areas to ensure coordination across the enterprise. Tom focuses on governance of the enterprise, including all stakeholders, senior management, line management, and capital sources, including lenders. He has particular expertise in middle market consumer food companies as well as agribusiness. Tom is a member of the Turnaround Management Association and is a Certified Turnaround Professional.
Background
Tom learned his profession at the H. J. Heinz Company where he worked with underperforming businesses within the portfolio, as well as serving as a member of the acquisition team, which is where he discovered the middle market. He left Heinz to serve as the first ever CFO of a family business suffering from inadequate controls in the face of rapid growth and a turbulent market.
He subsequently went on to serve in a variety of companies. As a Tatum partner he served severely distressed clients, whose distress was generally caused by inadequate basic business processes and poor governance, both of which he was able to address. Tom is known for his ability to restructure organizations in the most perilous of situations while maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders. He has restructured organizations across a variety of ownership structures, financing mechanisms and industry sectors, resulting in successful outcomes across these diverse settings. One of his engagements was nominated for the Turnaround Management Association Middle Market Deal of the Year. Tom has continued to serve middle market companies in various stages of growth and financial health. The middle market is his passion.
Tom holds a bachelors in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from the Wharton School. He was enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Outside The Office
Tom is an avid piano player, playing a broad range from Bach to blues, both pre-composed and improvisational. He enjoys contemporary American and British literature as well as history. He lives with his wife in Seacoast New Hampshire where they enjoy and endure the ownership of an old farmhouse.
