Star Profile
Tom Persons of the S.C. Technology Alliance
By John Temple Ligon Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Tom Persons

Tom Persons grew up on little Blythe Island, along Highway 17 in southern Georgia. He became fascinated in technology while working at a dairy. Persons was also a paper boy for the local daily, The Brunswick News.

Today, as CEO of the S.C. Technology Alliance, Persons is still fascinated and still delivers.

Persons was born in Savannah. He moved with his family to Blythe Island because his father was transferred by the telephone company, Southern Bell.

A few years earlier, his father was a tank commander with Gen. Patton for three campaigns, during which he was awarded three Bronze Stars. Persons' mother worked in the restaurant business, and he had a younger sister, Sandy.

They lived in a house on Blythe Island that originally was a hunting lodge.

Persons attended Glynn Academy where he played end and center and place- kicked.

Out of high school, Persons went straight to Brunswick College and became president of student government. He transferred from Brunswick to the University of Georgia in Athens.

While in Athens, Persons took a job with Southern Bell selling ads in the Yellow Pages. He did so well working full- time in the summers and part- time during the school year, he shifted his full attention to a new- found career in Southern Bell as an ad salesman.

In the early '70s in Atlanta, Persons became Southern Bell's Yellow Pages sales supervisor.

In 1990, he was promoted to general manager for the South Atlantic area, which included Georgia and the Carolinas. Until November 1993, he commuted between Columbia and Atlanta.

In early 1996, after 30 years in the communications business, Persons retired and immediately picked up a position with Columbia- based Affinity Technology Group, where he was executive vice president and a board member.

Persons left Affinity in September 1997 to start his own business, Prism Communications where he is CEO. He occupies their northeast corner office high up in Capitol Center, formerly the AT&T Building.

During 1998, Persons was asked by The Governor's Technology Advisory Council to form and lead The South Carolina Technology Alliance, a private- public, non- profit 501(c)3 corporation.

Persons has helped raise the number of technology jobs in S.C. to almost 42,000, which is a total tech payroll of $2,200,000,000.

Persons is chairman of the board of Touchstone Bancshares Inc., an Atlanta- based commercial bank and his latest venture. The board is heavily weighted by the Far East besides the Atlanta banking establishment. They are selling stock for the second week, and so far almost $20 million has been raised. Their goal is about $42 million, and the stock offering is scheduled to end October 31.

Chairman Emeritus of the Capital City Club, Persons also serves on the board of the Columbia Museum of Art.

Meanwhile, with his successful authorship of the enabling legislation, Persons serves on the S.C. Venture Capital Authority. The Authority recently identified its four winning venture capital firms to invest S.C.'s $50 million into S.C.- based start- up companies.

Persons and his wife Cathy met in high school, but it was several years before Persons could seal the deal. The couple is about to celebrate their 39th anniversary. They have three children: Tom, Jr., 36; Ashley, 33; and Amanda, 31.

Tom Jr., or Tep, is a USC MIBS graduate and an executive with H- P in Houston. Tom Jr. and his Texas wife have two children.

Ashley Persons Hibbitts is a Furman graduate living in Laurens with her husband, an orthopedic surgeon, and three children who are under six.

Amanda Persons is a horse trainer and dealer at her own business, Irish Oaks, in Atlanta.

With all his business interests and surrounding recreational opportunities, Persons has just one word for what he finds important and what he enjoys most, grandchildren.