History & Bio
BIO
A distinguished consultant, Gary Tomlinson puts his lifelong learning and 40+ years of experience to work helping senior executives discover and apply “execution.” Designed to bridge the huge gap between planning and implementation, Gary’s unique approach has helped guide many organizations on the journey to master execution as a competency.
As a founding member of the Keyne Institute, he employs the KeyneLink process to help clients successfully clarify and achieve their strategic objectives year after year.
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Having founded six successful businesses, Gary is well versed in the areas of entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational execution, and communication - and he speaks regularly on such subjects including lecturing at North Carolina State University’s College of Management for over 30 years. His favorite keynote topics include: Strategy Rich, Execution Poor – Discovering Execution, Art of Telling – Communicating Your Way to the Top, and Making Change When Change is Hard.
At the core of each talk, Gary’s guiding mission is that "the golden rule not only makes good moral sense, but it makes good business sense too".
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From the time he was an operating room technician more than 40 years ago, Gary saw the value in learning by doing, as well as by teaching.
Later, as the youngest pioneer of U.S. Surgical stapling instruments, he went the extra mile for his customers by providing one-on-one training, in-service programs, and workshops.
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In 1978 when Gary co-founded his second business, a medical equipment home care company, he capitalized on his teaching skills and love of learning to create corporate culture that thrived on team work, collaboration, community learning, and outside experts – concepts that were unheard of at the time.
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When Gary founded Med Covers, Inc., a medical manufacturing company in 1984, his creative thinking and leadership philosophy had a profound impact on the firm and its growth.
By adopting a unique objective – “to lead and do business with the human spirit as the firm’s primary customer” – it became clear that it valued and built on its core competencies. This, in turn, enabled Med Covers to obtain and retain their customers – and drive profits.
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Gary is a founding board member of Comfort Zone Camp of North Carolina, a bereavement camp for children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver.
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After earning a Bachelor of Science from Randolph-Macon College, Gary became a Certified Cardiac Technician (full-paramedic) through Eastern Virginia Medical School. Today, he lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.