Founding Partner
When Tom Tullidge was in the 6th grade, he started earning money by delivering newspapers in Staunton, Virginia. By the 7th grade, he had enough to start investing. He went to the stock market with his grandfather, and bought shares in an oil business in Alaska.
“I’ve always had an interest in business and finance,” says Tom. “My grandfathers were a tremendous influence on me. One was in the banking business, and one was in insurance. I went to the office with both of them quite often as a boy.” Today, Tom still enters the office every day, excited about the challenges of the financial world.
Tom founded the firm with Mark Gambill in 2002. Today he serves on the firm’s Executive Committee and leads the investment banking division.
Like his partner, Tom left a position with a major investment firm to start Cary Street Partners. While at Wachovia Securities, he was the Head of the Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Group and also led the Healthcare M&A Group. Prior to joining Wachovia Securities, he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary with Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield and as Vice President in Business Development. He was also a Partner with the law firm of McGuire Woods Battle & Booth, LLP.
In his 25-plus years in the business, he has worked with a broad range of companies in structuring, negotiating, and executing mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other complex corporate finance transactions in the United States and internationally.
Tom is also a board member of Gray Lumber Company, a privately held commercial real estate and land development company. He is the President of the Garland and Agnes T. Gray Foundation and is a board member of a number of other non-profit organizations, including the Richmond Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, Goodwill of Central Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation.
Tom is a graduate of the University of Virginia where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting as well as a Juris Doctorate degree. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and three children, who, occasionally, come into the office.