Tommy Sowers

Sowers in Iraq

In 1998, Sowers was commissioned in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. First assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, Sowers led a combat engineering platoon in the NATO campaign during the Kosovo War. While stationed in Germany, he represented his division in the Best Ranger Competition as well as an Eco challenge.[6] Between 2004 and 2006, while at 10th Special Forces Group, Sowers served two deployments in the Iraq war as a Green Beret, leading and advising U.S. and Iraqi units on counterinsurgency operations. During his 11-year military career, Sowers was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, Senior Parachutist Badge, Military Freefall Badge, Ranger Tab, Special Forces Tab, Belgian Commando School Brevet, two Bronze Stars, Joint Service Commendation Medal, NATO Service Ribbon, and numerous Distinguished Honor Graduate awards. He left the Army with the rank of Major.[7]

Asst Secretary Sowers

Sowers in VA

On May 9, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Sowers to be Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.[8] Sowers testified before the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on July 18, 2012 and was introduced to the committee by Senator Claire McCaskill.[9] Sowers was confirmed by the full Senate on August 2, 2012,[10] at the time the youngest Senate confirmed Assistant Secretary in the nation, and was sworn into office on August 20, 2012.[11][12]

While at the VA, Sowers represented and advised the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on matters relating to media relations, public affairs, and intergovernmental affairs.[13] He has testified before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs regarding the VA's efforts to increase the number of veterans accessing their VA benefits. Sowers served as a primary spokesman for the VA, making appearances in numerous national print and televised media.[14][15][16][17] He served in the post until April 2014.

From 2006 to 2009, Sowers served as an Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, teaching courses in American Government, Advanced American Government and Media & Politics. While at West Point, Sowers led a cadet summer trip to India, focused on service learning in the Himalayas and interaction with the Tibetan Government in Exile, including an audience with the Dalai Lama. In fall 2009, Sowers taught in the History and Political Science Department at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri.[18]

In April 2014, Sowers accepted a position as visiting faculty in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.[19]

In 2018 he was reappointed as visiting faculty in Duke's Department of Political Science to teach the first iteration of Hacking for Defense in spring 2019.[20] Hacking for Defense was featured in NPR and in Duke Magazine.[21][22]

In 2011, Sowers became a management consultant with McKinsey and Company. During his time at McKinsey he was trained in their mini-MBA program and served private equity clients in assessing mergers and acquisitions, predominately in Latin America.

In 2015, Sowers, along with fellow founders Shayne Sowers and Narayan Krishnan, created the firm now known as GoldenKey an online marketplace focused on unbundling the real estate industry. GoldenKey offered home owners the opportunity to unbundle services—listing, home showing, transaction coordination, etc. or choose a flat rate bundle to sell their homes.

In March 2016, Fortune Magazine listed GoldenKey as a top Raleigh-Durham start-up to watch.[23] During the summer 2016, Sowers led GoldenKey through its participation in the NFX Guild accelerator program.[24][25] In 2016, GoldenKey was named by CNN as one of the five startups "changing the real estate game".[26]

In 2017, Forbes named Goldenkey as one of the top 25 veteran founded start-ups.[27]

In September 2018, Landis, a data science specialty service used to help institutional real estate developers buy and sell residential real estate, acquired GoldenKey. The acquisition of GoldenKey allows Landis to better serve their home buyers, enhancing productivity by providing vital data in regards to what home buyers are actually looking for, and how much they are willing to spend. It deepens the relationship between sellers, brokers, title insurance companies and other participants in the real estate field.[28] Over the life of GoldenKey, Sowers led the raising of over $3.7M of venture capital with an institutional round led by Lowe's Ventures.[29]

In 2018 Sowers rejoined federal service as Southeast Regional Director of MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator, a US Department of Defense program researching ways to improve the problem-solving capacity of war-fighters. In regards to the Southeast expansion of MD5, Sowers stated, “MD5 looks to connect the venture and academic communities to warfighters to solve national security problems. The Triangle’s density of top public and private universities and the Southeast’s top entrepreneurial ecosystem all within a few hours of the greatest concentration of elite Army, Marine, Air Force and Special Operations Forces, makes Durham the perfect location for our expansion. On August 31, we’ll start proving out what right looks like by connecting these outstanding, elite communities to do good for our nation.”[30]

Sowers and the MD5 team intend on connecting elite tech and military communities in The Research Triangle to create a collaborative environment for the betterment of the nation. MD5 focuses on supporting military and veterans transitioning from active duty to careers in tech companies. They feature three portfolios of programs and services: education, collaboration, and acceleration. The education portfolio incorporates programs bringing innovation methods and the tools of entrepreneurship to the DOD workforce. Sowers himself is scheduled to teach an upcoming MD5 course at Duke titled “Hacking for Defense” where students focus on solving National Security problems through coding.[31]

During his campaign, Sowers received national attention for his call to end the conventional war in Afghanistan, criticizing the objective of training the Afghanistan National Army and Police.[44] In September 2010, Sowers appeared on Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe and The Ed Show to call for an end to the war in Afghanistan.[45][46] In October, he was profiled on the front page of the Washington Post.[47] The article sympathized with the idea of “popular indifference” as the defining feature of the Nation’s engagement with the war, acknowledging Sowers uphill battle to get voters to recognize the war as a pressing issue and not just an unpleasant distant news item.[48]