Tom Johnson

Tom is responsible for the overall management, interface and design of Ruby Lane Inc. IBM recruited him right out of school to work in their high-end computer graphics division in Kingston, NY. Three years later, he served as the Technical Liaison at IBM Japan in Tokyo. While there he was able to dramatically streamline the customer service procedure and problem solving process, shortening the timeline from 18 months to only a few weeks. During his six years in Japan, Tom worked closely on-site with clients such as Nissan, Sony, Toyota, and Honda. After leaving Japan, he spent a year working in Germany, London, and Detroit on the Ford account for IBM. When his division was relocated, he moved to California to a newly formed company that created email software. There he served as project manager for the Windows product line where he managed the internationalization of all product lines, which included 26 Unix versions, Mac, and Windows in French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. After the company was sold, he worked as an independent internationalization consultant for a variety of technology groups within Platinum Technology, until founding Ruby Lane in 1998. Tom graduated with top honors from the University of Minnesota, with a B.S. in Computer Science, with a Minor degree in Mathematics and Music.