“Milt is "big corporation bright" in matters of practicality, innovative thinking, and marketing breakthrough.  Moreover, he is one of the most effectively brilliant guys I've ever known.”

- Richard K. Rodgers, President

THE KELLY RODGERS GROUP

Milt Thomas grew up on a farm in Dooly County, Georgia, the second oldest of four and the oldest of three sons.  He attended school at Vienna, Georgia, much of the time during the waning days of Jim Crow, and after graduating high school, where he was Valedictorian, he was accepted into the University of Georgia, where he majored in Journalism and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

After more than twenty years in professional corporate roles, Milt is a former marketing communications executive of The Coca-Cola Company and business integration strategist for Home Depot, Inc.  While at The Coca-Cola Company, he was a principal in mounting the corporation’s strategic and global event marketing initiatives and provided executive oversight in constructing key strategic business development presentations.  Moreover, he spearheaded explorations into a technology alliance aimed at developing a next-generation, predictive “fuzzy logic” methodology, for evaluating marketing message effectiveness, prior to go-to-market. 

At Home Depot, Milt supported company Founders, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, and their executive corps in devising and implementing a series of communications-driven initiatives for corporate development, strategic growth, and internal branding.  This included new product rollouts, messaging strategies for emerging markets, assimilation strategies for new acquisitions, and internal intelligence that facilitated cultural engineering and customer relations optimization.  This all fueled and accelerated the company’s highly acclaimed performance -- 25% compounded annual growth – and nurtured corporate values that became, as a brand tenet, the company’s preeminent value differentiator.

Prior to his recruitment by Home Depot, Milt was with WSB-TV, the Cox-owned, Atlanta ABC Network affiliate, where he ascended through the ranks to become a senior executive.  In this role, he was instrumental in devising and implementing a transformation strategy that embraced progressive change and contemporary Business Best Practices that relied little on the internal collegial climate that has stalled performance.  This transition allowed the station to revitalize its business model and continue to succeed in an industry that had witnessed near devastating erosion and exposure in a highly competitive environ.

Currently, Milt is an executive consultant, providing:  Executive Coaching, Product Development, Acquisition Integration Strategy, Business Strategy & Balanced Scorecard, Internal & External Brand Development, Customer Predictive Analytics, and Organizational Fitness & Behavior. 

Milt earned his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, and, aside from his consulting, which he enjoys, Milt is an inventor, holding several U.S. patents with others pending, and he is a published author and blogger.

Now, Milt joins a small phalanx of free thinking, conservative black intellectuals who have no fear of speaking their minds -- men such as Herman Cain and Thomas Sowell.