37 Facts About Tom Leppert

Thomas Chris Leppert was born on June 15,1954 and is an American businessman and former politician who is the former CEO of Kaplan, Inc.

Tom Leppert had oversight of the company's operating divisions until his resignation was announced in July 2015.

Tom Leppert worked as CEO of the Turner Corporation prior to his election as mayor of Dallas in 2007.

Tom Leppert did not run for a second term as mayor and instead sought the Republican nomination in the 2012 United States Senate election in Texas.

Tom Leppert placed third in the primary behind Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst.

Tom Leppert served as a White House Fellow in the Reagan Administration in 1984 and 1985.

Tom Leppert was one of 13 fellows chosen from 1,247 applicants by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

On May 17,2008, Tom Leppert received an honorary doctorate from his undergraduate alma mater, Claremont McKenna College, for which he serves as a trustee.

Tom Leppert told graduates to "know your principles" and encouraged them to write them down.

Tom Leppert is a member of First Baptist Church Dallas and was formerly a member of the Dallas Country Club.

Tom Leppert was inducted into the DeMolay International Hall of Fame in 2010.

Tom Leppert attended college at Harvard University, where upon graduation in 1979, worked in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and New York City before moving to Dallas between 1986 and 1989; in 1989, he moved to Honolulu, where he resided until 1999.

Tom Leppert was elected to the Board of Directors of Washington Mutual in 2005; as part of his election, he was named to the Board of Directors' Governance and Audit committees.

Tom Leppert became President and Chief Operating Officer of Kaplan, Inc in January 2013, assuming day-to-day oversight of the company's operating divisions: Kaplan Test Prep and Kaplan Higher Education in the United States, and Kaplan International, with operations across Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Tom Leppert was named a 2007 "Business Person of the Year" finalist by the Dallas Business Journal, and "CEO Of The Year" by D Magazine in 2008.

Tom Leppert defeated city councilman Ed Oakley in a runoff election June 16,2007, winning with 58 percent of the vote.

Two years into his term, Tom Leppert had won support from a core coalition of Dallas City Council members, who voted with Tom Leppert more than 92 percent of the time, a rate roughly equal to his record of being on the winning side of council roll call votes.

Tom Leppert ran on the pledge of reducing crime and increasing the number of police officers in the city of Dallas.

In January 2008, Mayor Tom Leppert embarked on a trade mission to Monterrey, Mexico, to promote Dallas's medical, educational, and corporate institutions.

Tom Leppert was joined by more than a dozen officials from city government, the Dallas Independent School District and various health care and commercial institutions in the largest mission of its kind in years.

Tom Leppert stated that Mexican President Felipe Calderon would be visiting Dallas on his next visit to the United States.

Tom Leppert oversaw the negotiation of business deals with Chinese officials, such as advocacy of investment in the Dallas Inland Port and the placement of a Chinese telecommunication firm's US headquarters in Dallas.

Tom Leppert argued that if Dallas did not build the hotel, it would fall further behind other cities in the competition for convention and tourism business, and that larger conventions would not even consider Dallas because it does not have a hotel attached to its convention center.

Tom Leppert argued that, because it would attract more visitors to Dallas, the building of the hotel would lead to a broadening of Dallas' tax base and an increase in jobs and sales tax revenue to the city.

On February 21,2008, Tom Leppert unveiled The Every Child Ready to Read @ Dallas program.

In December 2007, Tom Leppert released his ethics plan that would ban city council members from accepting free tickets to events, and modernize the city's campaign finance disclosure system by creating a searchable, online campaign finance database and requiring electronic filing of campaign finance reports for political candidates in the city.

Tom Leppert ignited a controversy when he opposed no-bid concessions contract extensions with current Love Field food vendor Star Concessions Ltd.

Tom Leppert insisted that the contracts should be opened to public bidding instead.

In subsequent years Tom Leppert opposed property tax rate increases in the city of Dallas and proposed spending cuts to balance the budget.

In 2008, despite early calls for another property tax rate increase, Tom Leppert successfully led opposition to prevent another rate increase.

Tom Leppert successfully led opposition to another proposal to increase property tax rates in 2009.

In late 2008, it was widely rumored that Tom Leppert would run in a potential special election for Kay Bailey Hutchison's United States Senate seat, which she was widely expected to vacate during her run for Texas governor; in a December newspaper interview, Tom Leppert denied he had started to campaign, but he refused to entirely rule out the possibility.

Rumors soon circulated that Tom Leppert was considering a Senate run directly against Hutchison in 2012, a possibility he did not refute during an April 2010, interview.

In January 2011, Tom Leppert announced that he would not seek re-election to the office of mayor in May This further fueled speculation that he was planning a run for the now open US Senate seat being vacated by Hutchison.

On February 22,2011, it was reported that Tom Leppert would announce his resignation from the office of mayor the next day.

Tom Leppert resigned his seat as mayor effective at midnight on February 25,2011.

Tom Leppert told The Dallas Morning News that his campaign for the US Senate would begin immediately, with Mike Slanker, former political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acting as his chief campaign consultant.