Robert St. Thomas has had a
meritorious lifetime record of honors, achievements,
and service to his country. His career has spanned the country and the globe
working on logistics, cost reduction strategies, finding “smarter” solutions to
governmental and military management issues, and
working on the sustainability and growth of cities and smaller communities.
Education
Starting with
excellent achievements (he graduated 35rd out of 630) on the tennis and rifle
teams in high school, Robert continued his success as he went on to attend the
top-rated Rensselaer Polytech Institute (RPI)—one of the top engineering
schools in the country. While there, he was served as president of his fraternity for 2 years. He not only graduated from the
school with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1972, in
2004 he was also elected to the fraternity’s Order of Merit (for reorganizing a
failing chapter)—an honor given in recognition of unusual, lengthy, and
dedicated service.
Shortly after entering the
Air Force in 1973, Robert began attending the University of Southern Illinois
where he earned his MBA in 1978. Following some innovative achievements in the
Air Force, Robert attended the National Defense University where he earned his
Master of Science Degree in National Resource Strategy—knowledge that would be
put to excellent use throughout his career.
Military Career
While Chief in the Operation
Reports Branch at Travis Air Force Base in California from 1982-1985, Robert managed
the daily performance of global airlift operations. This required outstanding organizational
skills and continual communications. Using his extensive wealth of skills,
Robert was able to develop and introduce new advances and techniques to help
with analysis and information presentation.
During this time, he also put
his engineering knowledge to practical use by streamlining the efficiency of a
strategic international flight route for military airlift aircraft flying over
Singapore. That carefully redesigned flight plan was impressive enough to earn
him official recognition in from then-President Jimmy Carter. A Letter of
Appreciation was sent by Carter to thank him for his work on the new flight
route which had saved the military upwards of $150,0000 in operating costs
since it’s introduction in 1979.
As the Chief of the Operation
Reports Division at Scott Air Force Base from 1985-1989, Robert St. Thomas managed top-secret computer systems that were used to organize the military’s
response to global crisis situations. While assigned to the Weapons System
Support Division from 1989-1990, Robert was tasked with supplying spare parts
to over 1000 military transport aircraft worldwide. With an in-depth
understanding of some of the issues and uncertainties being faced regarding the
ability of certain parts of the fleet to fully accomplish wartime tasking
procedures, Robert was able to formulate an innovative new solution for
gathering the necessary data while at the same time saving the military $14
million.
As the Director
of Logistics for Airlift Forces during Operation Desert Storm, Robert assisted with efforts to return more than 420,000
military personnel to the US through his assignment managing equipment and
personnel necessary for the redeployment aircraft to operate on a continuous
basis. This achievement was recognized when he was selected for the Lance P. Sijon Leadership Award in 1992, which was
presented by the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force.
Robert’s analytical and strategic
adroitness along with logistical aptitude was exercised to great advantage
during assignments with the Department of Defense. Working on wholesale logistics strategies at
the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), he not only introduced new corporate
restructuring, cost reduction, and increased supply chain performance plans, he
also taught classes on Defense Logistics Issues and Performance Measurement at
the Air Force Institute of Technology each month for the 3 years he was
assigned to DLA. Another initiative had
him developing strategies to reduce costs in procuring millions of items
necessary to support military weapons systems. The cost reduction strategies
were highly successful yet helped the military increase support for customers
who relied on the Defense Logistics Agency. Between his assignments with the
DoD, Robert, along with David K. Peterson, used that knowledge and experience
gained to give a presentation entitled “Reappraising
Logistics Performance Measurement Within the Defense Logistics Agency: Evolving
to Meet New Realities.” at Ninth Annual Meeting of the Production and Operations
Management Society Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
After his retirement from the DoD in 1998, Robert
successfully completed a similar engagement
for the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command while working with PriceWaterhouse Coopers. This project saw him analyze their existing
processes and create new processes using commercial analysis that decreased
repair times, streamlined employee usage, and drastically decreased management
costs. In 2000-2001 he was made Engagement Manager of a project for the US
Department of State’s Office of Logistics Management where he again improved
management infrastructure and costs.
Civilian Career
After retiring from the military in 1998,
Robert turned his focus to projects that would apply advanced technologies in
order to improve the operation of government, education and healthcare
facilities, campuses, and municipalities while their reducing costs. While
employed by IBM (which bought out Price Waterhouse in 1999), Robert was focused
on Department of Defense cost reduction activities, particularly in supply
chain functions.
In 2008, Robert shifted his focus toward working on
IBM’s Smarter Plant/Smarter Cities
initiative. With this initiative, Robert found successful solutions to market
challenges within large cities and government facilities around the world,
including not only the DoD but expanding to federal civilian agencies such as
the Department of Energy, NASA, Veteran’s Affairs, and others. This work lead to producing data that would help modify
corporate cultures to become conservation-driven rather than
consumption-driven.
In October of 2015, Robert turned his efforts to
IBM’s Smarter Cities and Disaster Resilience initiatives. He worked on teams
helping to apply UN, IBM, and AECOM-developed protocols that assist communities
and large cities like New Orleans and Miami Beach to better prepare for, and
recover from, natural disasters. During this time, Robert gave the Keynote
Address entitled “The Role of a Global
Development Exchange in Reducing Global Poverty” at the United Nation’s
16th Annual Information Poverty World Conference.
In January 2017 Robert founded GTG Services
LLC. As the owner of GTG, Mr. St Thomas
focuses on the reduction of societal
risks, injustice, and inequities by applying
Smarter technologies and modern capacity building techniques to revitalize
small communities, which helps mitigate unsustainable urbanization. He partners
with small US communities like Seat Pleasant, MD and Small Island Developing
States such as Solomon Islands to use Intelligent Operations Centers and
Cognitive Apps to bring “big city services” to small municipalities, rural
areas and islands to create more stable communities where local citizens can
participate in-place with their local governments to compete successfully in
global markets. In April of 2017,
he was able to address this issue and his initiatives to the United Nation’s 17th
Annual Information Poverty World Conference with a presentation titled “Big City Services from Small, Customized
Platforms Enabling Rapid Economic Development”.
As a result of his first year in business as GTG Services, Robert was
honored by Seat Pleasant’s Mayor Eugene W. Grant at his State of the City
Address on 29 January 2018 for assisting the City’s strategic transformation
toward becoming a Smart City of Excellence.
Major initiatives included a city-wide hypertension reduction program,
deployment of IBM’s Intelligent Operation Center, and a multi-stakeholder
partnership with Oklahoma University, Harrisburg University, Prince Georges
Community College, the National League of Cities and the African American
Mayor’s Association to use Seat Pleasant as a living laboratory for
demonstrating and expanding these Smarter City concepts across small town USA,
and similar communities around the world.
