KANEOHE, HI, January 10, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to name Thomas James Vincent a Lifetime Achiever. An accomplished listee, Mr. Vincent celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Vincent is currently serving as the founder and president of the Thomas J. Vincent Foundation in support of under-represented students at his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and its business school, the Sloan School of Management. After a successful career in business, he poured his resources into philanthropic activities. Since 2008, Mr. Vincent has been a director on the board of the Father Ray Foundation, which manages children's homes in Thailand and works with the Vincent Trust in Pattaya to send children on to local Catholic high schools and area universities. He travels abroad several times a year to visit Thailand.
Born in Baltimore to Thomas Alonzo and Helen Geraldine Vincent, Mr. Vincent served with the U.S. Army Reserves from 1959 to 1963 and was a student at Johns Hopkins University, but left due to financial issues. In 1951 he worked as a barracks clerk with the Maryland State Police before joining the Glenn L. Martin Company, precursor of Lockheed Martin, in 1952 as a teletype operator. He was promoted to production planner in three years, and ultimately became master planning manager of the Pershing missile systems in 1959. In 1961 Mr. Vincent became corporate director of management information and control systems with Fairchild-Hiller Corporation. Two years later he was promoted to the Wyandanch, Long Island location of Fairchild-Hiller in New York as assistant general manager in the electronic systems division, and in 1965 he became director of finance for the company in the aircraft division of Hagerstown. Mr. Vincent forged his reputation as a skilled turnaround man early in his career, and ultimately held positions as director of project management in the aircraft division, corporate director of operations, and division general manager of the aircraft service division of Fairchild-Hiller in St. Augustine, Florida in 1969. In 1972, he also became owner and operator of the Floridian Restaurant in St. Augustine.
Mr. Vincent went on to the role of operations consultant with Offshore Power Systems, a joint venture of Westinghouse and Newport News Shipbuilding in Florida, in 1974. He then became the president and CEO of several companies, and was known for his skill in returning firms to profitability. Mr. Vincent was instrumental in the recovery of four separate major divisions with the oilfield and mining equipment company of Baker Hughes, namely the Pacific Concrete and Rock Company in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1975, Ramsey Engineering in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1977, Kobe Inc., in Huntington Park, California in 1980, and Milchem Inc. in Houston in 1984. He then joined York Air Conditioning as president and COO. At the time, York was a company owned by Borg Warner, which planned a spinoff of the company. Under Mr. Vincent's leadership, the stock quadrupled in a little more than two years, and retained him as an international business consultant from 1988 to 1989. From 1990 to 1992 he became chairman and CEO of Hawaii Seafood Growers in Kahuku.
Mr. Vincent was the author of "Fairplan," released in 1962. He took up the pen once more in 2004, publishing "In the Name of the Boss Upstairs: The Father Ray Brennan Story" which was produced into a short film titled "Legacy of Father Ray" in 2009. The story and the subsequent academic foundations were inspired by his experience visiting Pattaya, Thailand in 1989, when he heard about an orphanage, vocational school, and school for the blind in the area. The founder, Father Raymond Brennan, gave Mr. Vincent a memorable tour. "Kids began running up to us and hollering his name, Paw Lay ('Father Ray' in Thai)," Mr. Vincent said in an MIT alumni magazine interview. "I thought to myself right then and there, 'This is not a movie set. They had no idea I was coming. It was not pre-announced.' You know, 'This is real stuff.'" Despite not being Catholic or Thai, Mr. Vincent has worked hard to give those children a chance at a good education. He has also given his time to the Florida Pollution Control Association and the St. Augustine Airport Authority.
For his philanthropic efforts and incredible business leadership, Mr. Vincent was selected for inclusion in numerous volumes of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in the West, Who's Who in Finance and Business, and the 1989 to 1990 volume of Who's Who in Finance and Industry. Mr. Vincent was named to the 1965 Outstanding Young Men in America by Jaycees, is a recipient of a 1972 Research for Progress Achievement Award, and received a 1967 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship from MIT to complete a Master of Science in 1968. He was one of the few Sloan Fellows alumni not to hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent, and is the founder of the Thomas J. Vincent Foundation Fellowship Award Program at MIT. He has a seat with the board of directors of the Father Ray Foundation in Thailand, and is a member of the MIT Asia Executive Board. He had two children of his own, Wayne S. Vincent and the late Robin Kay Vincent.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Mr. Vincent has been featured on the Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievers website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America , Marquis Who's Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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