Tom Darden

Links: 

Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Cherokee

Tom Darden is founder and CEO of Cherokee and its predecessors. Cherokee has raised over $2.2 billion in five institutional private equity funds, and invested this capital in the acquisition, cleanup, development, and sale of approximately 550 environmentally contaminated real estate assets in the US, Europe and Canada.

Tom began investing personal capital in environmental companies before raising institutional private equity funds, and approximately 25% of his early stage investments have been founded or co-founded by him. Since the 1980’s he has invested in over 100 companies including Cherokee Environmental Risk Management (environmental insurance), Brownfield Revitalization (new markets tax credits for brownfield redevelopment), Tethis (biological superabsorbent), Living Homes (green buildings), Cherokee Biotechnology (biological remediation), Cherokee Solar (solar energy), Eco-Site (cell towers), Consert (demand-side energy management), PGSI (supply-side energy management), and Industrial Heat (energy).

Tom began his career with Bain & Company in Boston, working with Bain from 1981 to 1984. Beginning in 1984, he served for 16 years as the Chairman of Cherokee Sanford Group, the largest private brick manufacturing company in the United States and previously the Southeast’s largest soil remediation company.

Tom has served or continues to serve on numerous boards, including the Boards of Shaw University, Environmental Defense Action Fund, Research Triangle Institute, the University of North Carolina’s environmental department, Winston Hotels, Waste Industries, Gentra Systems, Consert, Inc., Evofem, The Prince of Wales Trust, WakeMed Hospital, and Helping Hand Mission. He was Chairman of the Research Triangle Transit Authority and served two terms on the N.C. Board of Transportation, through appointments by the Governor and the Speaker of the House.

Tom earned a Master in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a JD from Yale Law School and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar. His 1976 undergraduate thesis analyzed the environmental impact of third world development and his 1981 Yale thesis addressed interstate acid rain air pollution.

Tom Hahn

 Links:

President and Founder | Prudent Growth Partners, LLC

Tom is a successful entrepreneur, financier, and real estate operator with nearly 30 years of capital markets and real estate investing experience, including the active management participation of over five-dozen LLCs with holdings that consist of a neighborhood shopping centers, office and flex space, single-tenant retail properties, multi-family properties, and single family residential investment properties throughout the Midwest, Mid Atlantic and the Southeast.

Tom founded PGP in 2015 primarily as a way to work with many friends, investors, and partners who were interested in building a diversified real estate portfolio with a goal of achieving strong cash flow and long-term equity growth.

Prior to starting PGP, Tom co-founded Chapel Hill Brokers, an energy derivatives firm that was acquired by ICAP Energy, LLC, the world’s largest energy derivatives firm. He had a leadership role in many strategic acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategy decisions for the firm while also managing the US power derivatives businesses. He spent his early career on Wall Street as an oil derivatives traders at a private fund and two different global investment banks. Tom is an expert in acquisitions and dispositions, deal structuring, negotiation, management, finance, and investor relations.

Tom is also an active early-stage angel investor, with investments in several startups, including Bandwidth.com (which successfully completed an IPO in 2017), Republic Wireless, Renewable Choice Energy (acquired by Schneider Electric in 2016), Wedpics (acquired in 2017), and is a member of the Triangle Angel Partners, a private equity fund designed to assist and invest in startup companies in the Raleigh Durham area.

He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Jennifer, and two boys.

PODCASTS FOR THE FAITH DRIVEN INVESTOR

Tom Kehler

Links: 

Chief Scientist/Co-Founder | Crowdsmart Inc

Tom is Chief Scientist, Co-Founder and Board Member at CrowdSmart; a technology company dedicated to improving the accuracy and performance of early financial investments. His corporate and scientific practice in a broad range of AI and collective intelligence technologies provides a unique prospective in impactful implementation of technologies.

Tom has over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and CEO. He was CEO of IntelliCorp the first AI/Expert Systems Company to go public. He was CEO of Connect one of the first ecommerce companies to go public. He was CEO of Informative, an early social marketing company that enabled large scale brainstorming between companies and their customers. Informative’s customers included LEGO, NBC, and Procter & Gamble. Tomhas served on the Information Technology Advisory Board of the National Research Council.

He has served on various corporate, academic, and nonprofit boards and holds a PhD in Applied Physics from Drexel University.

Tom Lernihan

 Links:

Chief Investment Officer | His Fund

Bio:

Prior to joining His Fund, Tom worked at Zion Capital. There, he invested in apartment communities with a focus on providing significant social, environmental benefits to our residents and their surrounding communities.

Tom has over 10 years of commercial general contracting project management experience. HIs responsibilities have included the oversight and management of $150+ Million in commercial construction in Chicago and Indianapolis. He also has focused on the renovation and rehabilitation of distressed single family real estate, looking for opportunities to provide distinct value for the future occupants.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAITH DRIVEN INVESTOR

Tom Mallon

 Links:

General Partner | Perpetuate Capital

Bio:

Tom Mallon is the Co-founder and Chairman of the board of Regent Surgical Health. He is responsible for converting the company to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Tom has significant experience in real estate, venture capital funds, turnarounds and physician recruitment

CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAITH DRIVEN INVESTOR

Tom Nelson

 Links:

President, Made to Flourish and Pastor of Christ Community Church

Bio:

Tom earned a Masters of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Trinity International University. He is the author of Five Smooth Stones: Discovering the Path To Wholeness of SoulEkklesia: Rediscovering God’s Design for the Church, and Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work.

Tom is the president of Made To Flourish, a pastors’ network for the common good. He also serves on the boards of The Gospel Coalition and Trinity International University. Tom has two grown children and has been married to his wife Liz for over thirty years.

Life:

Tom has two grown children and has been married to his wife Liz for over thirty years.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAITH DRIVEN INVESTOR