Thomas served as an engineer, manager and executive for nearly two decades within high growth Fortune 100 Silicon Valley firms HP Palo Alto and mostly Cisco ranging from product development, corporate strategy, Enterprise IT to operating and management. He has also served as a director & chairman to numerous regional and statewide nonprofits, has led executive director search/transitions and has advised several startups, CEOs and large corporations.

As a principal of Sparkovation Advisors, Thomas actively advises startups, CEOs, corporations and investment portfolios on value creation, leadership/talent, digital business/IT and growth. He most recently served as the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Interim President/CEO.

Thomas formed his first tech startup at 15 years of age, with a penchant for innovation and entrepreneurship, he later began his engineering career at HP Palo Alto then at Cisco led product development / engineering teams to deliver successive billion-dollar flagship products from concept to market. He later rose to lead enterprise-wide transformational change strategy aimed at restructuring complex people, process, technology challenges generated by 100+ acquisitions.

He founded & served as Cisco’s inaugural D&I CTO over the Americas & Europe while working with Cisco Ventures to seed billion-dollar ideas across global markets and evangelizing emerging technologies aligned to Cisco’s investment portfolio.

Due to his lived experiences, he has been compelled to deeply engage across many social impact causes where disparities are greatest, including education, workforce and inclusion and served as a past Chairman of The Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Austin Ed Fund, EGBI and Mission Capital boards.

Thomas is a former board member of Leadership Austin & Texas Lyceum & currently serves on the boards of Capital Area Workforce Development Board (WFS), Austin Area Research Organization, Greater Austin Black V Chamber and UFCU. He started his journey at San Antonio Community College and graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio with a BS in Electrical Engineering and has earned project management and executive leadership credentials from George Washington University, Stanford University & Massachusetts Institute of Technology.