Bio: Tommy Spaulding is the founder and president of Tommy Spaulding Companies, a leadership development, speaking, training, and teambuilding organization based in Denver, Colorado. A world-renowned speaker on leadership, Spaulding has spoken to thousands of organizations, associations, educational institutions, and corporations around the globe. His first book, It’s Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life and Your Organization by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships, published by Penguin Random House in 2010, quickly climbed to the top of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today national bestseller lists. His second book, The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart will Change Your Organization and Your Life, published by Penguin Random House in 2015 is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal national bestseller, and was also listed on Inc.com’s Top 100 Business Books of 2015. His newest book, The Gift of Influence: Creating Life-Changing and Lasting Impact in your Everyday Interactions, published by Penguin Random House in 2022, was a #3 Wall Street Journal national bestseller.
Spaulding spent most of his career and rose to become the youngest president and CEO of the world-renowned leadership organization, Up with People. In 2000, Tommy founded Leader’s Challenge, which grew to become the largest high school civic and leadership program in the state of Colorado. He is the founder and president of the Global Youth Leadership Academy, as well as the National Leadership Academy, a leading national non-profit high school leadership development organization.
Previously, Spaulding was the business partner sales manager at IBM/Lotus Development, and a member of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. He received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from East Carolina University (1992); an MBA from Bond University in Australia (1998), where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar; and an MA in Non-Profit Management from Regis University (2005).
Spaulding was awarded the Outstanding Alumni Award by East Carolina University (ECU), and Spaulding received an honorary Ph.D in Humanities from the Art Institute of Colorado. Spaulding was also named by Meetings & Conventions Magazine as one of the 100 MOST FAVORITE SPEAKERS in the nation.
Tommy resides in Denver, CO with his wife and children.
Tommy’s Something Extra: “It’s the chromosome of love… show up in people’s lives and show up the people when we truly, you know, when they truly need us. That’s our legacy.”
