Thomas Michael "Tom" Higgins (born July 16, 1966) is an American social entrepreneur, professional investor banker, economic development specialist and social entrepreneur.
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Higgins was born in Brooklyn, New York to Patrick and Angela Higgins, Irish immigrants from County Mayo and County Kerry respectively. His father is a retired Captain in the New York City Fire Department. His mother is a retired Registered Nurse. Higgins is the second of six children. Higgins has three brothers, Patrick, Bryan and John, and two sisters, Joanne and Angela.
When Higgins was 7, his family moved from Floral Park, New York to Mahopac, New York. Higgins attended public elementary, middle and high schools in Mahopac, graduating from Mahopac High School in 1984. Higgins attended the University at Albany where he excelled both in academics and athletics. There he received the Wall Street Award for Outstanding Business Student. He was also twice named First Team Academic All American (football). In 1988, Higgins graduated from the University at Albany summa cum laude with a BS in Finance and Management Information Systems.
Higgins worked with Coopers & Lybrand and Equitable Life in New York before entering graduate school. In 1993, Higgins received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
In 1993, Higgins was chosen to be an MBA Enterprise Corps Volunteer and assigned to work with the Bulgarian American Enterprise Corps (BAEF) in Sofia, Bulgaria. The program was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). After his volunteer-ship ended, Higgins continued to work for BAEF and in 1997, he became Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer. Higgins stayed with the BAEF until 2005. While at BAEF, Higgins served as Executive Director in charge of SME and hotel lending at the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB), a BAEF start-up portfolio investment which he exited at 42 times the invested funds. Higgins was also instrumental in the development of Outward Bound Bulgaria and the Award for Young Entrepreneurial Excellence.
In 2005, Higgins Co-Founded and became Co-Managing Partner of the Balkan Accession Fund (BAF),[1] a EUR 110 million private equity and mezzanine finance investment fund, primarily focused on helping successful Bulgarian and Romanian companies expand in South-East Europe.
Higgins is also Chairman, lead shareholder and angel investor in several internet based Bulgarian companies which help empower people. In 2010, he was given an award for his contribution to the development of the Internet marketplace in Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Web Site Competition.[2]
In 2009, Higgins founded the [3], a not-for-profit organization focused, initially on empowering young people in the areas of entrepreneurship and leadership development through the Empower Award program, which is supported by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism of the Republic of Bulgaria [4] and the Empower Intern program, which is supported by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.[5]
Higgins holds significant leadership positions in the Bulgarian business community, including membership on the Board of Trustees of the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) [6] and membership on the Advisory Committee of Teach for Bulgaria. Higgins is also a member of YPO, Europe One Chapter.[7]
In 2011, Higgins founded Empower United, Inc.[8] Empower United is a social entreprise which aims at implementing an idea, which Tom Higgins developed while working in Bulgaria. The idea is based on a concept, which tries to unite and monetize into one entity the American people’s collective power as consumers, employees, employers, entrepreneurs, investors, thinkers, opinion leaders, community members and voters. Higgins envisioned that once fully operational, Empower United will be 100% effectively owned and controlled directly by the American people and will provide them enough money to satisfy their average living expenses.
Higgins is married to Penka Georgieva. He currently splits his time between Sofia, Bulgaria and New York, USA.