Tom Martin

Biography

Tom Martin serves as executive-in-residence in the Department of Communication at the College of Charleston. In 2023, he founded the Martin Center for Mentorship in Communication, to help inspire and develop a future generation of leaders and mentors among today’s outstanding communication students, and to foster more robust relationships between those who educate and those who practice in the communications field. The Center’s work includes the Martin Scholars, an experiential learning program for graduating seniors that Martin launched in 2016.

Martin was formerly vice president of Corporate Communications for FedEx, where he was responsible for the public relations and internal communications for the launch of the FedEx brand in 1994. After leaving FedEx, he served as senior vice president and chief communications officer for ITT Corporation. He served as a trustee for the Page Society for over a decade and was its chair in 2004-05. He received the Society’s Distinguished Service Award in 2011. He received the Legacy Award for mentoring from the Plank Center at the University of Alabama in 2022, and the Order of the Silver Crescent from the governor of South Carolina in 2023, in recognition of his many years of volunteer service at the College of Charleston.