Thomas Darden
Thomas holds a BSME from the General Motors Institute of Technology and a MBA, cum laude, from Babson College. He sits on the board of trustees of the Community Preparatory School, a private inner-city school focused on preparing middle school students for college preparatory high schools.
Thomas spent the last part of his career away from investing, moving into the arena of public education. He is a member of the 2009 class of the Broad Superintendents Academy and went on to serve on the executive staff of the School District of Philadelphia, comprising 164,000 students. While there, he was responsible for ensuring the equitable distribution of the district's resources and compliance activities across the district's schools and central office operations in areas including teaching & learning and school and business operations. Thomas led the turnaround of the district's lowest performing schools that transformed the academic experience of over 20,000 students. He finished his career in public education leading a group of charter schools (located in one of the top 5 drug zones in the country) through both operational and financial turnarounds. and he led the design and implementation of a "Cradle to Career" strategy that served students from preschool through college.
Thomas continues to invest in "semi-retirement", and he serves as an investor, board member and advisor to startup, middle market and nonprofit organizations. He continues to enjoy guiding CEOs in accelerating the performance of their organizations and helping them achieve their vision.
After his Kauffman Fellowship at Advent International, Thomas worked for 6 years in other private equity firms and he has 17 years of experience in a range of management roles at both startups and Fortune 100 companies. Thomas was a Managing Director with Wind Point Partners and led five Wind Point investments, and he was also the founder of Reliant Equity Investors, a middle-market and growth equity focused fund.
Before his start in venture investing, Thomas held management and engineering positions at three successful startups, all financed by venture capital investors: UltraCision Inc., GTech Corp., and Surgilase Inc.. During his startup career, he was involved in the development, market introduction, and growth of 12 successful new products. Thomas started out his career as an engineer, spending 7 years with the Detroit Diesel Allison Division of the General Motors Corporation.
Thomas is a member of the Charter Class of Kauffman Fellows, and served his fellowship at Advent International in Boston under mentor Larry McKenna.
Thomas serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Venture Education.