Thomas L. Ward
Managing Director, The Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship
In February 2008, Thomas L. Ward was named Managing Director of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. The institute supports and enables innovation and new business formation in the hospitality industry. Ward works with school faculty, alumni and industry partners to provide students with opportunities learn about and practice entrepreneurship. In this role, Ward introduces students to hospitality entrepreneurs and encourages them in their pursuit of entrepreneurial endeavors. With almost three decades of leadership in entrepreneurial, corporate, military and university settings, Ward brings an ideal mix of experience and know-how to his position. A native Ithacan, he is a 1981 graduate, with distinction, of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, and a 1990 graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He spent five years in the U.S. Navy as an intelligence officer, served as mergers and acquisitions director at BTG, Inc., launched several companies, was chief operating officer for Wilmington Finance Inc., and has worked as a consultant to Fannie Mae.