Tom O’Connor, LMSW

Founder & CEO

Tom O’Connor is a New York-based strategist, marketer, and executive search consultant bringing 20+ years as an arts administrator, training as a licensed social worker and educator, and a career-spanning commitment to stronger, more resilient arts organizations. As Founder & CEO of TOC Arts Partners, he leads a national team serving clients across theatre, music, opera, dance, visual art, performing arts centers, media arts, museums, service organizations, and more. Since founding the firm in 2015, Tom has partnered with clients across the world spanning a wide range of genres, geographies, and budget categories. Select clients include the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Jacob’s Pillow, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, George Mason University, Hartford Stage, and many others.

Prior to founding TOC Arts Partners, Tom served as a founding Director of Tessitura’s Enterprise Consulting division, developing revenue and engagement strategies for some of the world’s leading arts and culture organizations. He previously served as Director of Marketing & Audience Development for Roundabout Theatre Company — New York’s largest not-for-profit theatre — where from 2009 to 2015 he drove major audience strategy initiatives and oversaw annual revenue targets of $30-45 million across five Manhattan venues, including three Broadway houses.

Tom holds a license in social work (LMSW) in New York State and integrates related frameworks in both organizational assessment and executive coaching. A Trustee of TDF, Tom has served on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama’s Graduate Theater Management Program and the Brooklyn College Graduate Performing Arts Management Program and is a regular guest lecturer at Columbia University, NYU, and Fordham University. He hosts the podcast Changing Arts with Tom O’Connor, has presented at conferences across the US and Australia, and was the inaugural guest on Capacity Interactive’s CI to Eye podcast. He has also held roles at Manhattan Theatre Club, Situation Interactive, the Huntington Theatre Company, and Boston’s Stuart Street Playhouse.

Tom received his undergraduate degree in Theatre Education from Emerson College and his MSW from Fordham University. He lives in New York City and holds dual citizenship in the United States and Ireland.

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Get to Know Tom:

  • What is a dream concert/arts event that you wish you could have attended? Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall, or the original Sweeney Todd on Broadway

  • What do you do to start your day in your home office? Walk my dog Franklin, make some tea, and breathe before opening my email and suppressing a primal scream. (I love my work -- I do not love email.)

  • What's one thing in your home office that is unusual? A ukelele, a tambourine, and many books of poetry (...and a snoring French bulldog).

  • Who are the three people at your ideal dinner party? Eleanor Roosevelt, Joni Mitchell, the Dalai Lama

  • What is your favorite quote or words to live by? I can never choose just one: "Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got." -Janis Joplin "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination." -Mary Oliver (I have part of this as a tattoo)