Tom is a columnist for the Boston Globe's op-ed page and the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine and is also a partner in a New York-based private equity fund. He was a Boston city councilor for six years and has been a founder and senior manager of a number of start-up businesses.
Tom presently is a bi-weekly columnist for the Globe's op-ed page, where his humor column, "The Fortnight That Wasn't," appears every other Sunday. He also regularly writes for the "Perspective" page of the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine. Tom's pieces have also appeared on the pages of the Boston Herald, ArchitectureBoston and numerous other publications. He can be seen frequently on local television shows, including WGHB's "Greater Boston with Emily Rooney."
Tom is also a general partner of Murphy & Partners, a New York-based private equity fund. At M&P, Tom has initiated or participated in startups and financings of numerous businesses, including those in long-term care, radio broadcasting, newspaper publishing, television production, web design, and elementary and post-secondary education. Over the last several years he has sat on the board of several companies in which M&P has made investments, including Ruxton Health Care (a long-term care company), Little Tornadoes (a web-design company), Festive Occasions (a party rental company), and Mosaica Education, Inc. (a developer and manager of K-12 schools). For six months in 2002, at the request of its board, Tom was acting chief financial officer of Mosaica and helped guide it out of a severe financial crisis to a point where it was both profitable and cash-flow positive.
From 1994 through 1999, Tom was a Boston City Councilor, representing Boston's district eight. In his six years on the City Council, Tom distinguished himself, in the words of columnist Wayne Woodlief, as "thoughtful, innovative, articulate and unafraid." Tom was named "rookie of the year" after his first term by the Herald. The Boston Globe said Tom embodied "a Tsongas-style mix of social inclusion and private-sector common sense." Tom was first elected to the City Council in 1993 when he defeated a long-time incumbent by a margin of 27 votes out of more than 6,000 cast. He was unopposed for reelection in 1995. In 1997, Tom beat a single opponent by a margin of 3 to 1. In 1998, he unsuccessfully ran for the congressional seat then being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy. In 1999, having served three terms and to fulfill a pledge he made during the 1993 election not to hold the office for more than six years, he chose not to run for reelection.
In 1990, Tom founded Legend Medical Services, Inc., which was a Murphy & Partners portfolio company. He was Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and a director of Legend, which acquired and managed skilled nursing facilities. In four years Legend went from startup to profitability to a sale in 1994 that generated an internal rate of return in excess of 24 percent.
Prior to that, from 1987 until 1990, Tom provided financial and business consulting to a variety of businesses in the fields of retail sales, radio broadcasting, magazine publishing and substance abuse rehabilitation. Services for clients included strategic and business planning; identifying, negotiating and structuring acquisitions; and financial analysis and modeling for startups and acquisitions.
From 1983 until 1987, Tom was chief financial officer and a director of International Healthcare Corporation ("IHC"), a company he helped found. IHC owned and operated seven freestanding substance abuse facilities, two health maintenance organizations and other health care businesses. The company grew from a startup in 1983 to $100 million in annual revenues at the time of its sale in 1987, which generated an internal rate of return of 87%.
From 1981 until 1983, Tom was a business and management consultant. His clients included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Renewable Energy Ventures, Inc., New England Electric System, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the John Hartford Foundation, Alternative Energy Associates, Inc., the U.S. Department of Energy, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Rudd Furniture, Inc., and others.
Tom has also worked stints as a reporter for Long Island, New York's Newsday (1980), as a policy analyst for the environmental consulting firm of Donovan, Hamester & Rattein (1979), as analyst for the program analysis division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1978), as a member of the intergovernmental affairs staff of the Boston regional office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1977) and as a congressional aide to the late Congressman J. Joseph Moakley (D-MA) (1976).
Tom was graduated from Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, MA. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School.
While at law school, Tom was editor-in-chief of a law review, the Virginia Environmental Law Journal, news editor for the Virginia Law Weekly, and president of the Legal Environment Group.
While in college, Tom was president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Democrats, editor-in-chief of a science fiction magazine named "an unreal distinction" (the use of lower case was considered quite sophisticated in those days), editor of the Harvard Independent, chairman of the University Film Studies Council, president of the Quincy House Film Society, and a student member of the Harvard Institute of Politics.
Tom is an honorary member of the Boston Society of Architects, a trustee of the Boston Foundation for Architecture, and a member of the board of advisers of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University. He has in the past served as a member of the editorial board of ArchitectureBoston; a director of the Boston Society of Architects; a trustee and Treasurer of the Boston Children's Theatre; a director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts; and a director of the Ellis Memorial & Eldredge House; and on the board of trustees for Catholic Memorial High School. He is also a member of the Massachusetts Bar.
Tom is the eldest of 11 children. He is married to Laurie Farrell and together they have two children, Lauren and Bryn.
