Thomas J. O'Malia
Director and Paul Orfalea Chair,
Lloyd Greif Center For Entrepreneurship Studies
USC Marshall School of Business
Tom O'Malia's entire career has been centered on entrepreneurial ventures and teaching.
O'Malia served on the faculty of the USC Entrepreneur Program from 1981-1991. In 1995, following the successful sale of his company, ShopTrac to Kronos, he returned as the Program's Director. In the past several years, O'Malia has received two Golden Apples, symbolic of the Best Graduate Teacher in a vote by the student body.
Prior to 1995, O'Malia was the CEO of ShopTrac, a firm he founded and successfully sold. Other entrepreneurial ventures include being a key team member in the startup of two ventures, one of which became NASDAQ listed and for whom he served as a Director and Chairman of the Board. As a consultant O'Malia successfully engineered six turnarounds and has been in countless start-ups as an advisor, investor, and fundraiser.
From Spring 2002 until the Fall of 2005, Tom O'Malia left the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies to work on a University wide program for Provost Lloyd Armstrong serving as the initial Director of the Center for Learning at USC. The goal of the Center was to define USC in cyberspace in the year 2020. As part of the experimentation in interactive, pedagogically driven learner center education, the team created three courses and several vignettes. The center's team efforts were rewarded when they received the coveted USDLA #1 ranking for best new cyber course introduced in 2004 and in 2005 received USDLA #1 and #2 best new courses plus two "Webby Worthy Awards" for best use of the Internet.
Professor O'Malia's teaching activities and interests are extensive. He wrote and hosted the award winning distance-learning program Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Building the Dream, which was named best new distance learning course by USDLA in 2000 and currently is being televised nationally on PBS University. O'Malia is also the coauthor of The Entrepreneur Journey, a text which guides an entrepreneur from the finding of their opportunity to the creation and management of their company based on a model of Feasibility.
Recapturing the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Existing Companies and Entrepreneurship in the Pacific Rim has been the focus of O'Malia's consulting and speaking. He has delivered multiple classes and seminars in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong and has been a frequent lecturer to U.S companies.
O'Malia's business experience included positions in technology and banking. He is the author of Banker's Guide to Financial Statements.
Professor O'Malia earned his Executive MBA at The Peter Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA; his MBA in marketing and finance at the University of Scranton, and has BS in accounting at King's College, Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Presented by the USC Marshall School of Business
in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce
