Tom Black is an American entrepreneur and wine collector.
Tom Black is an American entrepreneur and wine collector.
Black was born in Nickerson, Kansas in 1959 in a converted train boxcar. [1] Black attended Southwest Missouri State Teachers College where he sold books door-to-door during summer breaks for booksellers Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee. [2]
Black became sales manager of Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee, then National Sales Manager for FISI [2] In 1990, Black founded and was the CEO of accounts receivable company, Private Business, Inc. [3] [2] The company went public in 1999. That same year, Black co-founded bank mission-critical equipment and maintenance company, Tecniflex, then its sister company, Imagic Corporation. [3]
In 2007, Black published an autobiography, The Boxcar Millionaire, which describes his impoverished childhood and his subsequent business success. [4] In 2020, Black published "Doing Business at the Table: The Guide to Presenting an Exemplary Professional and Social Presence While Hosting a Successful Business Lunch Or Dinner Meeting" through the Tom Black Center for Excellence. [5] Black has written columns for The Tennessean newspaper. [6]
Black is also a motivational speaker, giving seminars on ethical sales techniques. [1] In 2008, Black partnered with Chicken Soup for the Soul author, Mark Victor Hansen, to give a series of one-day seminars on sales. [7]
Black is a wine collector, with a wine cellar containing more than 30,000 bottles, [8] one of the largest personal collections in the United States. [9] [10] [11]
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