Tom joined Schmidt Ocean Institute in July of 2015.  He brings 23 years of experience in the cruise ship industry.  Most of that was with Lindblad Expeditions, where he worked onboard in the deck department for several years, before transitioning in 2001 to their operations office in Seattle as a purchasing and logistics specialist.  He supported a fleet of several vessels, buying and shipping parts and equipment to remote areas of the world reaching from the Arctic to Antarctica, and to all continents.  Tom has a similar role at SOI, fulfilling the needs of the engineering and deck departments as the Falkor explores the oceans.