President and CEO, Cherokee Farm Development Corporation
Biography
Tom Rogers is the Director of Industrial Partnerships and Economic Development at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). His responsibilities include leading the lab’s regional economic development efforts, establishing collaborations with key industrial partners, and directing several key strategic initiatives. Tom also has a Joint Faculty Appointment with the University of Tennessee’s Bredesen Center, where he teaches entrepreneurship to energy science PhD students.
Prior to joining ORNL in 2008, Tom was the founding President and CEO of Technology 2020. He has also served as the Executive Director of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation, as President of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, and began his career at TVA.
Tom serves on a number of state and regional economic development boards, including the East Tennessee Economic Council and the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. He is an investment committee member for the Southern Appalachian Fund and Meritus Ventures, and serves on the regional advisory board for SunTrust Bank. Tom holds a B.A. with honors from Michigan State University and a Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He and his wife Mary Brown live in Knoxville, and have two sons and a granddaughter.