A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Thomas A. Jacoby received his BSEE from Purdue in 1956. Immediately after graduation, he joined Tecumseh Products Company and after just two years was promoted to assistant chief electrical engineer. In 1965 he became chief electrical engineer and pioneered the development of special protection systems for motor compressors, new insulation systems for magnet wire and improved mechanical efficiency of the mechanism. Jacoby was promoted to assistant director of engineering in 1970 and to director of engineering in 1975. He was named president of the International Division in 1984 and has responsibility for all technical licensee activity as well as for marketing gasoline engines, power trains, and compressors. Under his direction, gross sales for the division have increased by 500%.

Jacoby holds four patents and serves on standards writing groups for the National Electrical Code Making Panel No. 11, the Underwriters Laboratories Industry Advisor Groups and Canadian Standards Association, the International Electro-Technical Commission, and the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute.

Jacoby was the inaugural speaker for the Herrick Distinguished Industrial Lecture Series at Purdue in 1991 and in 1992 received the “E Star” Award from the President of the United States for Excellence in Exporting. In the community he is working to improve the public school system, is helping develop a Sister City program between Tecumseh, Michigan, and La Verpilliere, France, and coordinates a student exchange program.