Thomas Kane (BA’87) made an exciting return to the Communication Arts Partners (CAPS) board in Fall 2024. Kane started volunteering with CAPS 15 years ago when the board was just forming to support the department’s teaching, research, and outreach activities, but he had to step away for a few years after moving to California. Kane is thrilled to be at a point in his career where he can join the board again, and with decades of professional skills and experience, his return is sure to add to the great work CAPS provides for Communication Arts.
Kane’s career began after accepting a marketing job for a computer company in Dallas, Texas. Over the next few years, he worked his way up to become the Marketing Communications Manager at the company.
Later, Kane and a friend purchased a local bookstore and operated three locations in Dallas, Houston, and Austin for the next 13 years. While running the bookstores, Kane dreamt of attending business school, so after selling the locations, he began attending Southern Methodist University to get his MBA in marketing and management. He credits his experience in Communication Arts as preparing him to be an effective communicator and presenter, which helped set him apart from his business school classmates.
After receiving his MBA, Kane was a product manager at Brinks for nearly seven years. Many of the clients Kane worked with were in banking, which motivated him to search for a bank he could directly work for. After finding Tri-Counties Bank, he moved from Texas to California and has been working with the company’s marketing team ever since.
Kane is delighted to come back to the CAPS board and hopes to help with fundraising efforts. “Over your life, you develop a lot of affinity for the institutions that had a big influence on you, and certainly, the Comm Arts department did for me, and I want to support the faculty, the staff, the students, and the program’s future however I can,” Kane said.
For advice to current Communication Arts students, Kane said “don’t be afraid to use your communication skills to reach out to people.” People might assume that a senior leader at a company gets bombarded with notes from college students, but it happens quite rarely. “You can stand out by having a well-done letter or email or handwritten card asking to talk about career opportunities. Just don’t be shy and take advantage of every open door you can find,” Kane said.
As the CAPS board prepares to meet later this spring for their first meeting of 2025, the group is eager to implement ways to help the department communicate, fundraise, and best prepare students for their careers.
You can discover more about the CAPS board and their mission here.