Tompkins Ventures – Making Good Companies Great
Tompkins Ventures matches your enterprise’s challenges with our network of 1000s of Commercial Partners, Capital Partners and Consulting Partners. Our toolbox is unlimited, as every Tompkins Ventures Partner has decades of experience helping companies address the five major factors for business success: Leadership, Capital, Technology, Supply Chain/Facilities and Procurement. In today’s business environment of continual disruption, even the best companies do not do everything great. Your core competency is your business. Our core competency is selecting the right Partner(s) to work with your executive teams to make good companies great. Business strategy and supply chain expert Dr. James A. Tompkins founded Tompkins Ventures in 2020. Our network is based in the U.S. but operates on all continents except Antarctica.
Our Vision and Values
Why Us?
Our Leadership
Regions We Serve
“In 5 decades of solving business problems, deploying innovations and creating profitable growth, I have discovered that an integrated network of organizations can produce value well beyond the capacity of even the greatest single organization. Want to capture competitive advantage and profitable growth? Then tap into the Tompkins Ventures network, which includes 100s of organizations.”
Our Vision and Values
Tompkins Ventures began with a vision formed during the massive disruptions of 2020: Could an organization build a network from 100s of disparate partners; a network, many of them former VPs or C-level executives, with unmatched expertise and experience across all critical factors of business success; a network that continues growing and adjusting to discover innovative, scalable, adaptable solutions as the business world continually changes; a global network without staffing dozens of offices worldwide; a network that only succeeds when clients receive the solutions, consulting and value they need to profitably grow.
Tompkins Ventures fulfills that vision: A global organization minus the global overhead, an organization of Partners who have spent decades creating value for companies worldwide, Partners with the integrity and trustworthiness to collaborate on building long-term relationships, Partners who treat everyone with dignity and respect and do the right thing the right way.
Why Us?
A global network with the overhead of a small, local operation, Tompkins Ventures is an ecosystem of 1,000-plus Partners who have spent decades reinventing supply chains and transportation systems to add resiliency, reduce costs and increase service levels; transforming organizations and leaders; connecting entrepreneurs with Capital Partners who are advocates, not just financiers; and integrating the latest technology to help you gain insights in an age of perpetual disruption. Many in our global network have succeeded at C-suite or VP level positions with the world’s largest companies.
Our exclusive Tompkins Ventures Matchmaking Process ensures the right fit between your enterprise and the right path forward, giving your executive teams options to stay ahead of the waves of disruption coming at you every day.
Our Leadership
Our leaders have the experience and passion to help guide your company to higher levels of success.
Click to Discover New Worlds of Growth
Jim Tompkins, Chairman
jtompkins@tompkinsventures.com
Jim Tompkins is an international authority on designing and implementing end-to-end supply chains. He is a serial entrepreneur who has started several businesses; worked with private equity; designed many industrial facilities and automated materials handling systems; implemented many supply chain information technology solutions and worked to enhance the performance of many 3PLs and 3PL clients.
Jim was the founder and Chairman of Tompkins International, for over 40 years and he focused on helping companies achieve profitable growth, giving him an insider’s view into what makes great companies even better. In 2020 Jim founded Tompkins Ventures, LLC, a firm that helps executive teams address five big problems: entrepreneurial growth, development prosperity, logistics partnerships, technology and leadership.
Jim received the prestigious Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) on June 1, 2015. The award is a tribute that recognizes Dr. Tompkins through the contributions he has provided to the welfare of mankind in the field of industrial and systems engineering. In addition, Jim has served as President of the IISE, the Materials Management Society and the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education and has been named a Distinguished Engineering Alum by Purdue University. He has also received more than 50 additional awards for his service to his profession.
Mike Royster, Chief Executive Officer
mroyster@tompkinsventures.com
Mike Royster has over 30 years’ experience managing Logistics and Distribution on a global basis for companies like Ingersoll Rand/Trane, Eaton Corporation, and XPO Logistics. His vision, strategy and implementation have resulted in the exponential growth of these practices for enterprises ranging from start-ups all the way to the largest companies in the world.
Mike evaluates new commercial partners and supports all Tompkins Ventures business partners with new and existing opportunities.
Beyond Logistics and Distribution, Mike’s previous leadership roles include Materials, Supply Chain Optimization, and TMS Control Towers.
Mike has received many leadership awards throughout his career, including multiple Ingersoll Rand Presidents Awards. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Appalachian State University and has completed several Leadership Certification programs.
Zane Browning, Chief Growth Officer
zbrowning@tompkinsventures.com
Zane Browning is a lifelong connector.
As Chief Growth Officer of Tompkins Ventures’ Entrepreneurial Growth Practice, Zane deploys his experience to match the right people with the right business technology with the right commercial partners, building networks and driving business worldwide. His passion is finding compelling technologies that are ready for growth.
Prior to joining Tompkins Ventures, Zane worked in enterprise level business development, intellectual property strategy and monetization. He has held VP and executive-level positions for two venture-backed portfolio companies and an early-stage material science and IP-focused startup. Along with being an angel investor in a wide range of companies, including medical device, software, drug development, sensor tech, next generation energy storage and several others, he co-founded Adapted Guidance LLC, which produces SF-5 nano-engineered lubricants and solvents, primarily for the firearms industry. Zane spent 17 years in technical sales and sales leadership for 3M’s Automotive and Aerospace Division, winning multiple division awards. His B.S. is from the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma.
David “HT” Kramer, Chief Technology Officer
dkramer@tompkinsventures.com
David Kramer has a deep passion for technology and over 20 years’ experience in the engineering, deployment and operations of scalable and secure technology services across a wide range of technology platforms, including global telecommunications platforms, high performance computing platforms for research and development, Fortune 50 Enterprise environments and large-scale analytics and machine learning systems deployed on Microsoft, Google and Amazon’s cloud services.
An early adopter of cloud technology solutions, he has helped numerous software product and enterprise companies design, develop and deploy scalable cloud native applications, meeting stringent uptime and cybersecurity requirements. These solutions helped these institutions scale globally and achieve extremely profitable business models.
In recent years, he has focused on helping organizations develop advanced application capabilities using both narrow and general AI solutions and distributing these applications via blockchain technologies.
He holds degrees in physics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and business finance.
He has raised nine children. His hobbies include skydiving and spending time with his wife and five grandchildren.
Aaron Alpeter, Chief Procurement Officer
aalpeter@tompkinsventures.com
Aaron Alpeter is a serial entrepreneur who has built a portfolio of supply chain and supply chain tech companies and is active in the North American startup ecosystem. He has personally built or rebuilt dozens of startups that have created over $3 billion in investor value.
Aaron was part of Unilever’s Supply Chain Management Program, spending five years working in planning, manufacturing, international logistics and continuous improvement. He followed that with executive positions at several well-known startups, including Hubble Contacts, Sustain Natural, The Flex Company, Mirror and Lululemon Studio.
A seasoned leader, he has extensive experience building manufacturing relationships in North America and Asia across categories as diverse as medical devices, connected fitness, consumer packaged goods (CPG), food & beverage, CBD, pet care and apparel. He has advised companies as diverse as The Farmer’s Dog, Grove Collaborative, Banza, Ettitude, Sunsoil and Kind.
He graduated with a degree in Logistics from The Ohio State University. Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife and three children.
Regions We Serve
Although based primarily in the United States, Tompkins Ventures is a global company with Partners on every continent except Antarctica. We serve enterprises everywhere it is legal for U.S. businesses to operate.
