Tom Tyrrell

Mr. Tyrrell, Founder and Managing Partner of CollaborRx, specializes in non-profit and entrepreneurial business consulting regarding collaborative visioning, leadership skills development, organizational culture strategies and venture start-up challenges. He is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Great Lakes Biomimicry, an entrepreneurial 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to create conditions for innovation through biomimicry, focused on assisting organizations explore new opportunities, solve problems and drive sustainability by harnessing the intelligence found in nature’s 3.8 billion years of R&D (recently merged with the Ohio Aerospace Institute). Mr. Tyrrell was a Co-Founder and former Chairman of Segmint, an award-winning provider of data analytics driven marketing technology, which was acquired by Alkami in April 2022. He was a Co-Founder, Senior Advisor, and a Director of Glengary LLC, which combined a network of support services with investment capital. Mr. Tyrrell’s prior thirty-three-year career, all in the metals industry, included significant turnaround, M&A, and IPO experience, with responsibility for four start-ups, restarts or consolidations ranging from $250M – $1.5B in sales, partnering directly with investment firms including Primus Venture Partners, PNC Equity Management, Warburg Pincus and The Blackstone Group. In 1988 he was awarded Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) award for Business and Industry and, in 1989, was selected an EOY national finalist for the restart and operation of the American Steel & Wire Company. Mr. Tyrrell received an Esquire Magazine Register Award for Business and Industry in 1988, appeared in Who’s Who in America commencing in 1992 and was named one of 30 Difference Makers in the 2010 Crain’s Cleveland Business 30th Anniversary issue.

Since moving to NEO in 1986, Mr. Tyrrell has been deeply engaged with non-profit organizations focused on the three E’s – Education, Entrepreneurism and Environment – all committed to enhancing regional economic development. He has actively supported undergraduate and graduate-level education at midwestern colleges and universities. From 1990-2011, he was a trustee of Elmhurst University, Elmhurst, Illinois and served as Chairman from 2002-2007. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Baldwin-Wallace University, Berea, Ohio, serving from 1989-2010, and Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee for sixteen years. For ten years, Mr. Tyrrell was a trustee of the Foundation Board of Lorain County Community College (LCCC), is a member of their GLIDE Innovation Fund Board and served on the NorTech Board of Trustees, the Youngstown Business Incubator Board, and the Akron Archangels. He was a trustee of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Association, the oversight board for the federally funded Ohio & Erie National Heritage Canalway and, as Vice-Chair, led development and implementation of their Interpretive, Identity, Signage, and Marketing Communications Strategic Plan. Mr. Tyrrell has been involved with the Canalway since 1988, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Conservancy of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, was the Founding Chair of the Trails Forever Endowment Leadership Initiative for the Conservancy and is a trustee of the Cleveland Zoological Society. He also is engaged with the Advisory Board for the St. Vincent Charity Integrated Behavioral Health Initiative and is assisting with strategies for St. Vincent Charity’s transition from a Medical Center to a Health Campus. He has participated in numerous other NEO philanthropic organizations, most notably as Founder and Chairman of Business Volunteers Unlimited in 1991, a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 1988, the 2020 Advanced Leadership Institute and the 2021 Cleveland Leadership Council.

Mr. Tyrrell received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Elmhurst College and an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Baldwin-Wallace College. He is married to Diane Montague Tyrrell, R.N., has three children – a veterinarian, a pre-school teacher, and a librarian – and is an avid scuba diver, XC skier and fitness devotee.