Contact Tom Christopoul:
Phone: +1-212-845-9893 x805
E-mail Tom Christopoul

Mr. Thomas Christopoul is the President of Somerset Shore Associates, Inc. He is also currently a Managing Director of Pilot Group, LP (a private equity firm in NY) and a partner at aXcess Partners Worldwide (a marketing and brand development venture with offices in NY, Atlanta, Los Angeles and London). He was most recently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Marketing Services Division of Cendant Corporation, where he worked for more than 10 years. There, he managed and integrated the company’s three direct marketing units (Trilegiant Corp. Progeny Marketing Innovations and cims Global), which ultimately comprised one of the largest affinity marketing enterprises in the world with revenues exceeding $1.5B and EBITDA of $280M annually. Before retiring from the company in the fall of 2005, Tom led the strategic divestment of that division in a sale to private equity firm Apollo Management, LP for proceeds in excess of $1.8B.

Prior to that, Tom was Chairman and CEO of the Financial Services Division of Cendant Corporation, where he managed Jackson-Hewitt Tax Services, the second largest tax preparation firm in North America with annual revenues of more than $200M. In June 2004, he led the 100% Initial Public Offering of that company on the NYSE (JTX) which raised more than $800M in proceeds for it’s former parent, Cendant. In its first two years trading, the company's stock more than doubled.

Before assuming that position, he was Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Cendant, where he led the corporate functions of the company on a global basis. Among the functions reporting to him were human resources, information technology, marketing, business development, customer service centers, telecommunications, facilities, corporate real estate, and convention planning. He also managed the company’s corporate aviation department. He served as the senior management representative to the compensation and policy committees of Cendant’s board of directors, headed the company’s Pension Committee and served as the Chairman of the Cendant Charitable Foundation. Tom was also Chairman and CEO of Advance-Ross Industries, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cendant involved in the fabrication and installation of industrial electrostatic precipitators.

Before being appointed CAO, Tom was Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Services at Cendant, responsible for field and headquarters HR, staffing, employee relations, compensation, benefits, training, and organization development. Prior to joining Cendant’s predecessor, HFS Incorporated as VP of HR in 1995, Tom was the director of labor and employee relations for the Nabisco Biscuit Company, a unit of RJR-Nabisco Holdings, Inc. He was previously the division human resource manager for the refrigerated foods division of Nabisco. Tom also worked for several years at the Pepsi-Cola Company in 3 different states in a number of increasingly responsible HR generalist roles prior to Nabisco.

He has extensive international experience, having negotiated large scale outsource, joint venture and partnership deals throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Australia, South Africa, Thailand, China and Japan. Academically, Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Rutgers University and a Master of Science (MS) degree from Purdue University.

He is Chairman of the Compensation, Governance and Nominating Committee and a member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of Resources Global Professionals (NASDAQ: RECN). He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Nor1, Inc., TAI, Inc. and of Rutgers University. He was formerly a member of the Board of Directors of NetMarket.com, Inc., where he served as Chairman of its Compensation Committee and also served on the Board of Directors of One-to-One Dynamics, Inc. (Hagglezone.com)

Additionally, Tom is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the board of Manhattan Theater Source, a not-for-profit professional theater in New York City and is a member of the Board of Advisors of the September 11th Children’s Fund.