Tom Krieglstein was born, and lived, on an organic farm in Michigan for the first seven years of his life. As a teenage and young adult he lived in and around Chicago. Tom now resides in New York City with his wife, Annie Colbert (aka ACbert), who is a professional writer and ghost Twitterer
As a college junior, Tom started his first business selling used textbooks online, an endeavor that grew to $1.5 million in annual sales. While in college Tom was also named an ALL-USA Academic First Team member and earned top academic honors at both College of DuPage and Aurora University, giving the graduation speech at each institution.
After graduating with a BA in Business Management, Tom worked as a head facilitator for three years with Quantum Learning Network, the premier company for accelerated learning techniques. Through QLN, Tom spoke to thousands of students around the US and the world, including South Korea, Indonesia and Bermuda.
In 2004, Tom co-founded his second business, Swift Kick, to helps colleges create, increase, and measure student engagement. Swift Kick was honored as the 2007, 2008, and 2009 National Campus Speakers of the Year and since 2004 has worked with over 250 colleges, corporations, and US Military bases.
With a desire to make an even greater impact on engagement beyond speaking, Tom co-built Red Rover in 2008 as a peer-to-peer learning platform that helps current and former students connect, learn, and grow from each other.
On January 16th 2012, Tom launched his latest project, AlumniChoose.org, as a digital fundraising tool for campus clubs and organizations that leverages social media and micro-funding.
Beyond his professional life, Tom and his wife are avid soccer players who have traveled to 25 countries, competed for the 2008 NBC Today Show Wedding, and appeared on the Tofurky box.