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All Faculty

Thomas "Tom" White

Humanities and Sciences
thestorytellersinstitute.com

Biography

Tom White develops and grows sustainable ventures. An award-winning industrial designer with an MBA, Tom teaches and speaks on the power of design thinking and the creative process to launch new ventures and build market share. A skilled collaborator, Tom leads teams to create and communicate authentic stories for product and service innovations that attract customers and investors.

Tom enables Fortune 500 companies like Unilever, Motorola, Volvo, Philips, Paccar, Lockheed-Martin, Pfizer, Lilly, and other global leaders to successfully launch new products, win contracts, and generate funding. In Europe, Tom created a global personality for Volvo by collaborating with its international creative agency team for global deployment.

Tom also positions mid-size and early-stage companies for next-level growth. Tom crafts strategic positioning for start-ups, design firms, and advertising agencies in the US and Europe to improve business performance and create a pathway to strategic sale. 

As Impact Director at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Tom collaborated with leading cleantech incubators across the US to foster, measure and publish the social, environmental and economic impact of nearly 200 portfolio companies. As Advisor to LACI, Tom helps guide the creation of new programs that enable LACI to attract new partners, portfolio companies and sources of strategic funding. 

Tom has led faculty and staff teams to create new design-based programs for academic institutions including the Savannah College of Art and Design, ArtCenter College of Design, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and the Columbus College of Art and Design. As Executive Director of LACI’s on-campus incubator LACI@CSUN, Tom created the award-winning Innovation Incubator in CSUN’s Nazarian College of Business and Economics. He authored the Master the Pitch series to help early-stage entrepreneurs learn how to attract investors and close funding.

Classes

  • HBUS-110-01: Business and Economics
  • HBUS-240-01: Principles of Marketing
  • HBUS-110-02: Business and Economics