Tom began working at Gulf Oil in the early 1970s on international, mainly West African oil. He later worked as a financial manager for Gulf Oil headquarters in Houston in the late 1970s and finally moved to Lagos, Nigeria in 1982 at the height the “oil crisis.” He headed up the finance department for Gulf in Nigeria until the Chevron/Gulf merger in 1985. At which time, he moved to California to work for Chevron. Tom is now a financial consultant for the oil industry in West Africa and has started an NGO.