Thomas Cox

Biography: Tom Cox Private Consultant Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Cox is an independent consultant providing strategic and tactical advice to organizations on issues of urban development, finance and government operations. From 1979 to 1989, Mr. Cox was the Executive Director of the North Side Civic Development Council, which under his leadership, became the community development corporation for fifteen neighborhoods (pop. 60000) in the North Side of Pittsburgh. During his tenure, the organization developed sale housing, an incubator, industrial and commercial buildings, and managed a seed/venture capital fund. The organization was identified by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) as one of the ten best CDCs in the United States during the decade of the 1980s. In 1989, Mr. Cox became the first Executive Director of the Neighborhood Progress Corporation, an intermediary organization created by the major civic organizations and philanthropies in Cleveland, Ohio. He oversaw the management of an annual $3 million grants program to provide operating support to Cleveland's Community Development Corporations. During this time, he created a $15 million development loan fund, a housing development corporation, and the first wholly owned subsidiary of the South Shore Bank of Chicago. The organization initiated the creation of a small business incubator, two Nehemiah housing developments (including a "smart growth" project with DPZ as the project architect). In 1994, Mr. Cox became Deputy Mayor and chief of staff to Mayor Tom Murphy, with major responsibilities for neighborhood and economic development, budget management, and was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the City. During the twelve years of the Murphy administration, the City payroll was reduced by 800 (out of an initial complement of 5000). Some City services were privatized (payroll the most significant). As manager of the capital budget process, Mr. Cox instituted the routinization of various City investment programs like paving and vehicle purchase. New computer systems were purchased for budget management and to help the Police Bureau institute state of the art personnel evaluation systems and crime mapping systems in order to implement better police resource deployment practices. Every playground in the City (some 150) was repaired or replaced, which included the installation of child safety surfaces. Mr. Cox over saw the securing of the provision of pro-bono services by the McKinsey consulting firm in order to reengineer the Police Bureau and the Public Housing Authority. As a consequence of his responsibility for neighborhood and economic development, Mr. Cox served as chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (the City's urban renewal operating agency) for twelve years. He oversaw the design and implementation of numerous projects including the creation of a $60 million revolving development fund, two sports facilities, the convention center, a new headquarters for Alcoa, new office buildings for Mellon and PNC Banks, downtown housing, numerous neighborhood housing and commercial projects, and two new town/in town developments. Mr. Cox was a visiting scholar at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, city of Wuhan, People’s Republic of China, for the academic year 2009-2010. He is a graduate of Yale University (B.A.Philosophy, 1961) and the Union Theological Seminary (M.Div. l964). He is an ordained Episcopal priest. (March 2014)