Tom Sylvester

Head of Information Technology

Tom Sylvester is head of information technology for Academy Solar, a Chapel Hill, N.C.-based firm that offers residential and commercial solar energy system designs and installations with a focus on the Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte markets.

As head of information technology, Tom handles the design and improvements for the Academy Solar website and implements efforts in social media. One of four partners who established Academy Solar, Tom was instrumental in creating the website’s free online calculator to estimate a firm, final price for their solar energy installation with the complete cash flows, payback, expected real energy production and anticipated environmental benefits that their system will produce.

With fellow Academy Solar partner Darren Dasburg, Tom is president of the consumer products division of Cerventis, LLC, a software and hardware development company based near Research Triangle Park. He is head of the design team at Cerventis that created the Music Jam portable mixer for the iPod. He holds a dozen software copyrights and has two patents pending, one as a result of a project with the bioengineering department at NC State University.

A graduate with a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Department of Astronautics and Computer Science, Tom worked as an acquisition management project officer for the USAF’s Ballistic Missile Office and then later served as a staff officer in Washington, D.C., where he headed the USAF’s Parts Standardization Program for Air Force Systems Command, ensuring that personnel used the same off-the-shelf equipment as much as possible for construction. He was the USAF representative to the Government/Industry Data Exchange Program as well, where he oversaw best practices to be shared with new technologies to adhere to the same industry standards.

After his Air Force jobs, Tom consulted with a Washington, D.C. engineering firm and developed software for the aerospace industry, including equity claim coding for distribution of more than $400 million in bankruptcy claims to the pilots at one airline.

As an airline pilot, he has more than 15,000 hours of flying in his log book. Tom holds three large aircraft type ratings. Over his flying career he has flown corporate aircraft, executive charters, organ transplant “life” flights and commuter/regional turboprop aircraft. He is currently an alternate member of the NWA ALPA Merger Committee for the corporate merger of Northwest and Delta airlines, providing data support.

In his spare time, Tom has authored three novels which are registered with the Screenwriters Guild in Hollywood. A fourth novel should be in stores this spring. An avid guitarist, he plays his Bulletproof guitar when no one else is around.

His charitable activities include supporting the Tammy Lynn Center for Childhood Disabilities in Raleigh.

A native of Arkansas, Tom resides in Cary, N.C. with his wife. They have one daughter who recently graduated from Harvard with departmental honors with a degree in biological sciences and currently attends medical school.