Thomas M. (Tom) Box is a Professor of Management in the Department of Management and Marketing at Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, KS ). He was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated from John Adams High School in Cleveland. After a year at Hiram College, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and was assigned to intelligence/recon until the end of his enlistment.

From 1969 to 1972 he was Vice President and Division Manager at Riverside Industries, and from 1972 to 1980 he was Vice President of Operations at Braden Steel Corporation. Thomas received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Tulsa in 1977 and an M.B.A. with a concentration in operations research from the same university in 1979. From 1980 to 1984 he was Senior Vice President of Operations at Southwest Tube Manufacturing Co. From 1984 to 1990 Thomas was on the faculty of the University of Tulsa.

He joined the PSU faculty in the fall of 1990. He received his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University with a major in strategy/entrepreneurship in 1991. He has more than 75 journal and proceedings publications and five books. He is a member of the World Future Society, the Allied Academies, the Society for Advancement of Management, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

He has appeared in “Who's Who in the Southwest.” He consults regularly for manufacturing and health care organizations, along with the federal government. His wife, Dr. Barbara Box, is a native of New Kensington, Pa., and is a Professor of Nursing at MSSU. They have three children: Anne is an attorney with Milberg Weiss in San Diego, Valerie is a psychiatric nurse at Freeman Health Systems (Joplin, MO ) and Tommy is a project manager with Perry Homes in Houston.

Thomas' hobbies include reading, gardening and keeping up with 3 grandsons.