Thomas Rollins
Template:Notability Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for deprecated parameters".Template:Wikidata image Thomas Rollins (born November 7, 1955) is a retired American entrepreneur, Senate staffer, and attorney. Rollins is best known as the founder of The Teaching Company, which published over 4000 hours of educational audio and video content during his tenure as CEO.[1]
Early life and education
Rollins was born in the Panama Canal Zone on November 7, 1955, the oldest son of Mary (née Michieli) and Thomas Walsh Rollins. He was raised primarily in Texas.[2] He attended high school at Westchester High School (now the Westchester Academy for International Studies) in Houston, Texas. While there, he was an active member of the debate team.
After graduating high school, Rollins attended Georgetown University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, cum laude, in 1978.[1] He was encouraged to attend Georgetown by head debate coach James J. Unger.[3] While a member of the Georgetown debate team, Rollins won the top speaker award at the National Debate Tournament twice and second speaker once, a record that has stood for over 45 years.[4] Rollins would later be voted the "Nation's Outstanding College Debater of the Decade" in a 1980 survey of debate coaches.[5][1][6]
After briefly serving as a research assistant for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Rollins entered Harvard Law School in 1979.[2] He graduated with his J.D., magna cum laude, in 1982. While at Harvard Law School, Rollins was a research assistant for Professor Laurence Tribe[7] and an editor for the Harvard Law Review.[8]
Early Career
Clerkship and Legal Practice (1982–1985)
Between 1982 and 1983, Rollins served as a law clerk for judge James L. Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[9]
Rollins was an associate at the Houston law firm of Susman, Godfrey, and McGowan between 1983 and 1985.[10]
Ted Kennedy (1985–1989)
In 1980, Democratic speechwriter Bob Shrum introduced Rollins to Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, and Rollins would serve as Kennedy's Chief of Staff and as Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions starting in 1985.[11] Rollins persuaded Kennedy to become chair of the Labor Committee rather than the Judiciary Committee in the event the Democrats won the 1986 elections.[12]
After the Democratic victory in the 1986 Senate elections gave control of the chamber to Democrats, Rollins's leadership on the committee during the 100th Congress saw the passage of over 40 bills and several landmark pieces of legislation, including the Grove City Civil Rights Restoration Act,[13] the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988,[11] and the Health Omnibus Programs Extension (HOPE) Act of 1988, the foundational federal program to contend with the AIDS epidemic.[14] According to one published observation, this time, the 100th Congress, was "the best period [Kennedy] or almost any other Senator has ever had."[15] Considered "politically savvy and a quick study" on Capitol Hill,[16] Rollins left Kennedy's staff in February 1989 to found his business.[17]
The Teaching Company (1990–2011)
Rollins founded The Teaching Company in 1990, with the goal of identifying the country's "superstar teachers" at the university, college, and high school level to record their lectures and sell them to the public.[18] The inspiration for the company came after Rollins had skipped most of his evidence class lectures during his second year at Harvard Law School, relying on the video lectures of Professor Irving Younger to achieve success on the exam.[19] Rollins stated that the experience made him "realize that we dramatically undervalue the power of great teachers."[19]
Rollins recorded the company's earliest lectures in front of a live audience in a basement auditorium of the Georgetown University Medical Center.[20] By 2000, the company was well-established, earning over $20 million in sales,[21] and the Wall Street Journal would soon describe the company as "the colossus of its field."[22]
In October 2006, Rollins sold a majority stake in the company to Brentwood Associates, a private equity firm.[23] Rollins remained director of the board until 2011,[1] by which time the company was generating $110 million in annual sales and had served millions of customers.[24][20]
Personal Life
Rollins resides in McLean, Virginia, with his wife, Victoria Radd Rollins, a law school classmate and former partner at Williams & Connolly LLP.[9] Since retiring, Rollins has been a volunteer debate coach at the Potomac School,[25] has set two Virginia bench press records,[9] and won the A-Class World Championship at the World English Sporting Clays tournament in 2012.[9]
In 2012, for his work at the Senate and in business, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni gave Tom Rollins their Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education.[26] In 2015, Rollins won the Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Speech and Debate Association.[27]
Bibliography
Books
- Rollins, Thomas (February 13, 2020). The CEO Formula: How Profits, Justice, and Vengeance Make Or Break Companies. Independently Published. ISBN 979-8610456423.
Articles
- Rollins, Thomas M. (2014). "MOOCs: Been There, Done That." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 60 (19).
- — and Laurence Tribe (1980). "Deadlock: What Happens if Nobody Wins?" The Atlantic. 246(4): 49-62.
References
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- ↑ Rich, Spencer (October 28, 1985). "Inside: the Health and Human Services Department". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/10/29/inside-the-health-and-human-services-department/b05cd5c9-fb86-4059-87e2-1b4830212367/.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Squires, Sally (April 20, 1987). "THE KENNEDY PRESCRIPTION". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1987/04/21/the-kennedy-prescription/f720aba4-e048-4f3c-a823-8b8592db1aeb/.
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- ↑ "Kennedy's Comeback". The National Journal: pp. 1224. May 16, 1987.
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- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Max, Sarah (2016-05-27). "Born in the VCR Era, Great Courses Seeks to Evolve (Published 2016)" (in en). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/business/born-in-the-vcr-era-great-courses-seeks-to-evolve.html.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Martell, Nevin (September 3, 2015). "Before YouTube and online classes, there were the Great Courses". The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/before-youtube-and-online-classes-there-were-the-great-courses/2015/08/31/30947f08-353d-11e5-8e66-07b4603ec92a_story.html.
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- ↑ McClay, Wilfred M. (2007-08-24). "Prof in a Box" (in en-US). Wall Street Journal. Template:Citation/identifier. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118791710438107397.
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