Thomas J. Pernice, chairman and co-founder, heads the company’s Los Angeles office where he co-manages the firm and acts as senior counsel to the practice’s clients.

He also directs GA's business development practice group, which helps private interests and high-growth enterprises to identify business partners, source capital and forge long-term corporate strategy.

Under his leadership, the firm has been nationally recognized for its award-winning work and has been ranked as one of the top 60 independently held PR firms in the country.

Tom brings more than 28 years of executive experience in both the private sector and in government. He has spent most of his career in boardrooms and in the executive branch of the federal government. For eight years he served as a corporate officer and vice president of public affairs for Dole Food Company, Inc. and Castle & Cooke Real Estate Company, as well as for their chairman, David H. Murdock.

Before his private-sector career, Tom served in the White House for eight years under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, where he was assistant to the vice president and director of advance to Vice President Dan Quayle. Under President George W. Bush, he was appointed senior policy advisor and executive director of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (“SEAB”) at the U.S. Department of Energy, under Secretary Spencer Abraham.

He has also served on the boards of directors of several publicly traded companies, and owns a successful business development consultancy. A partner with former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham in the Bond Companies Sustainability Fund, he has worked to develop an international real estate development fund dedicated to green building and green building technologies.

Tom is married to Liza Utter-Pernice, an author, Los Angeles restaurateur, and television host for the Style Network & Fine Living, and together they have two children. Tom and Liza both serve as members of the Board of Governors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and work to raise funds for the Women’s Cancer Research Institute. A California native, Tom is a 1984 graduate of the University of Southern California.