About TomPowell
Senior Managing Partner of Resolute Capital Partners. As chief strategist I combine my education and proven expertise in raising private capital, innovative deal structure, risk mitigation, portfolio management, and distressed debt recovery to lead the Resolute Capital team in building a cross-pollination program of Foreign Direct Investment between Asia and the United States.
In 1999, I founded and led the growth of ELP Capital, Inc, a mortgage banking investment company. In addition I served as the Senior Managing Director for ELP Capital’s affiliated investment company - ELP Capital Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor for the ELP Capital Family of Funds, Institutional Investors, and wealthy individuals.
I began my career with Wells Fargo Bank when I was recruited in 1988 for a management position in business banking for the Silicon Valley market. I was instrumental in the architecture, development, and initial application of Wells Fargo's Officer Sales Training programs, led two separate branch offices to top 5 overall rankings, and in 1990 was named as one of the youngest Vice Presidents in the Company’s 140-year history.
I am a widely sought after speaker, international guest lecturer, and am an Instructor in the Office of Executive Education at Harvard University. In addition, I publish a weekly economic newsletter and podcast The Powell Perspective. I am involved in numerous community and industry groups.
Specialties:An innovative investment manager with particular expertise in credit risk analysis, distressed debt recovery, and deal structure. I understand the practical application of money management in response to risk on both Wall Street and Main Street.
As markets continue to produce signs of stabilization over the next quarter, it is unlikely that unemployment figures will show much improvement. With figures the highest they have been in more than 25 years, unemployment appears to have neared its peak. Lowering the rate to levels our economy can adequately support will prove to be a daunting task. But, with […]
With a bad habit of ignoring profound systemic problems, Federal Treasury officials are now securing a system that encourages the same careless risk-taking that originally got us into this mess. With this week marking the one-year anniversary since Lehman Brothers imploded, it is only appropriate to discuss the faulty system that protects and rewards failing financial institutions. The […]
Earlier this week, after wrestling with the spate of painful economic news provided by major media, I recognized that I had no immediate control over any of the massive economic concerns. The stock market zigged when I hoped it would zag. Unemployment numbers, often reported differently, moved at different paces in the undesirable direction. Our federal deficit grew, which increased […]
Reasonable Regulation: That’s Allstate’s Stand Many companies involved in financial services cower when an official of any stature mentions the threat of national regulation, but Allstate has decided to embrace it. Since late April, Allstate has been pushing an advertising campaign that is rooted in support for creating a national regulation agency for all players in the financial industry, […]
Stats Won’t Save Us Every day, and every minute somewhere on the Web, another statistic that hints at an economic recovery is reported, copied, translated, manipulated and reevaluated. It seems for every positive up tick in economic numbers, there is also a negative. We have been experiencing shaky times for the past 20 months. Every sector is not going to […]
Cash for Clunkers Part II: Dealers Have Clunkers, No Cash In last week’s first Cash for Clunkers installment, Cash for Clunkers Part I: Good for Businesses?, I discussed the potential threat the program poses for small businesses. This week I am presenting Part II. Auto dealers across the country have been accepting qualified jalopies from consumers in exchange […]
Once Bitten: Learning to Trust Real Estate Again The housing bust burned real-estate investors. Even more frightening, many investors were blindsided by the bust because “credible” officials as high up as then -Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were convincing them housing was immune to speculative bubbling. At some point, however, investors will be wise to forgive the real-estate market and […]
Yeah, There’s a Czar for That It is beginning to appear that the job of high-up elected officials is simply to hire others to oversee the issues we elected them to solve. President Obama has appointed a czar for nearly every significant issue that faces his administration. According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, “Republican Sen. John McCain […]
Subprime Lenders, Transformed With shady subprime-lending practices behind us, former subprime lenders have been forced to put their devious skills to work elsewhere. The complexities of loan modifications have attracted many ex-lending predators and provided them a vehicle to employ their corruption. Now no one is saying that each and every person involved in loan modification is corrupt. In that […]
The New “R” Word: Reset Over the past 18 months, we have been inundated with bleak tales of economic strife. Inevitably, the media has worn us all thin with their never-ending string of bad news. Yes, we are stuck in the thick of a very painful recession. Unemployment rates are flirting with double digits, fears of inflation are beginning to […]
Thomas J. Powell – Reasonable Regulation: That’s Allstate’s Stand
Reasonable Regulation: That’s Allstate’s Stand Many companies involved in financial services cower when an official of any stature mentions the threat of national regulation, but Allstate has decided to embrace it. Since late April, Allstate has been pushing an advertising campaign that is rooted in support for creating a national regulation agency for all players in the financial industry, […]