Author. Educator. Retired Navy Captain.

Dr. Tom
DePaoli.

Stories from the Navy, the workplace,
and a lifetime of learning.

Explore books on leadership, purchasing and supply chain management, alongside family memories and stories for younger readers. Find a title, watch its presentation, and choose where to begin.

Dr. Tom DePaoli in a blue jacket
Tom DePaoli Author & storyteller
Servant Leadership Stories book cover
A life of experience. A shelf of stories.Start with the person

01 / Experience

Where the
stories began.

Before the books came the work: military logistics, business, and teaching. The lessons came from people.

Leadership Stories from the Corporate Jungle and Navy Deck Plates book cover
The Navy. The workplace. The lessons in between.

A life, told through its stories

Leadership Stories from the Corporate Jungle and Navy Deck Plates

Dr. Tom retired from the Navy as a Captain in logistics. His civilian career took him through supply chain, consulting, software, and human resources.

This book brings the experiences together—the difficult decisions, the mistakes, and the lessons that stayed.

U.S. Navy
Captain, retired
Business & education
Leader, teacher, author
More about Tom

A closer look

The experience
behind the pages.

Explore the Navy and workplace experiences behind Tom’s leadership memoir. This presentation introduces the decisions, mistakes, and people that shaped the stories. Watch with a challenge from your own team in mind, then open the book to spend more time with the lessons that stayed.

Book presentation / 5:21 Fullscreen available

02 / Speaking

Bring a story
into the room.

Trust, character, and the decisions people remember. Start with the writing behind the conversation.

Leadership by Storytelling book cover
Servant Leadership Stories book cover

Leadership by Storytelling

Some lessons are
easier to remember
as a story.

Tom writes about leadership through real experiences. These books offer a starting point for conversations about earning trust and taking care of people.

TrustLeadershipPeople
Invite Tom to speak

03 / Mentoring

Take care
of your people.

Servant Leadership Stories

Book presentation / 2:47 Fullscreen available

Trust, empathy, and the everyday work of looking after a team.

Learning alongside
other people.

As an educator, trainer, and coach, Tom has taught in university classrooms and online. His books carry that same interest in helping people learn.

Portrait of Dr. Tom DePaoli
Dr. Tom DePaoli

Author, educator,
trainer, and coach.

His teaching & coaching

A different way into the subject

A business fable about transformation, teamwork, and trust. Read it alongside the leadership stories.

Ask Tom a question

04 / Business

The books
behind the work.

Purchasing decisions. Supplier relationships. Better ways of working. Lessons drawn from the job itself.

Common Sense Purchasing — New Edition book cover

Purchasing / New Edition

Common Sense
Purchasing.

For the people making the next purchasing decision.

Relationships, negotiation, and practical lessons for purchasing and supply chain professionals. The new edition builds on Tom’s original collection of hard-knock lessons.

  • Supplier relationships and trust
  • Negotiating with better information
  • Putting experience into practice
Looking for the original edition?
Book presentation / 4:29 Fullscreen available

Before you open the book

Watch the
purchasing presentation.

Explore the supplier relationships, negotiation, and buying decisions behind Common Sense Purchasing. Watch the new-edition presentation with a question from your own work in mind, then use the reading guide to choose where to begin.

Interested in working through a business question with Tom?

Explore his consulting work

05 / Best Selling Author

Find your
next book.

Start with a question you’re carrying—or a story you’d like to read.

On leadership & people

The complete collection

For the work in front of you

Business / Purchasing / Supply chain

Beyond the workplace

There’s a life
in these pages, too.

Childhood memories, family, and a story to help younger readers talk about bullying.

Your next chapter

Start with the question.
Find your book.

A team to lead. A purchasing decision to make. A story you want to share. Explore fourteen books by Dr. Tom DePaoli, or get in touch about the conversation you have in mind.

Explore Tom’s books on Amazon