Executive Committee

While leading the Data Skills Working Group, Thomas served as the interim Chief Data Officer (CDO) at the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) where he led the department’s data governance activities; executes key data collection, inventory and quality processes; and provided strategic direction and guidance for the bureaus’ collection, storage, access, and use of their data assets across twelve bureaus and offices.

Thomas chaired the department’s Commerce Data Governance Board, led implementation of the Federal Data Strategy, and represented the department on the Federal CDO Council.

At the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Thomas served as the Chief Data Strategist, leading the team to create the agency’s first production artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms deliverable. This AI tool classifies patent and non-patent documents according to the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) symbols schema recognized by most international intellectual property offices.

Thomas has served on the team creating the Federal Data Strategy as part of the Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal: Leveraging Data as a Strategic Asset of part of the President’s Management Agenda. He also served as the USPTO lead on the Cancer Moonshot Task Force Data Working Group, which incentivized external teams to exploit patent data through challenges that enhanced our understanding of the links between cancer research, invention, and commercialized therapies.

A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Engineering, Thomas received his master’s degree from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. He has been a guest speaker at the White House Open Data Summit, Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech, and the Harvard Business School. He was also nominated for FedScoop Top 50 Federal Leaders of 2018 and appeared on the Government Matters – Tech Leadership Series.