Developing, launching, and strategically building businesses is the common thread tying together Tom’s 20+ years of professional work. Combining his litigation and transactional experiences gained while practicing law with his business experiences of running operations for a national business as well as launching several independent businesses, Tom has a unique education beyond formal training. Tom’s experiences range from founding a boutique law firm, growing the practice to have offices in New York and New Jersey, to launching a company in partnership with a former professional athlete to develop and manage youth football academies. Harnessing these broad experiences and seeing the shifting educational and business landscape, Tom launched The Study USA in 2017. The Study USA, established through a public-private partnership with the City of Irving, is an innovation, entrepreneur, and business resource center focused on women-owned and women-led businesses as well as minority-owned businesses. The Study’s mission is to converge, collaborate, and create unique partnerships and enhance business development through the collision of academic partners, companies, small businesses, start-ups, and the Community. Tom is also on the faculty at Dallas County Community College and Paul Quinn College, leading the entrepreneurship program and representing the college on the National HBCU Business Deans Roundtable. He serves as Of Counsel at Wright Connatser in Dallas, having earned his J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law and his B.A. from Colgate University.
Tom Foley is a member of the Dallas Economic Opportunity Leadership Academy, Class of 2019-2020, one of several Workforce Leadership Academies in localities across North America.
The Workforce Leadership Academies are part of the Economic Opportunity Fellows Network, a network of leadership and fellowship programs run by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. Within this Network, EOP connects national and local leaders from across sectors — nonprofit, government, business, philanthropy, academia, and more — to advance policies and practices with the potential to help low- and moderate-income Americans thrive in today’s economy. Learn more at as.pn/eofn.
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