Colleague Spotlight: Tom Starck, Sales Account Executive

What is your role at The Tibbetts Group?

“I’m a Sales Account Executive at BFC. I started out as a Customer Support Executive, and I always had a vision of going into sales. I was in the customer service role for about six months, and now I’ve been in my current role for about 10-12 months.

“I’m really enjoying it; I have really good relationships with our customers. On a day-to-day basis, I deal with requests for quotes, sales orders and ensure our customer satisfaction is as high as it should be.”

Have you worked in this role throughout your career?

“I’ve got experience which is hands-on and also customer-facing. I’ve worked in a few previous sales roles, but I’d say my biggest strength is that I was previously a qualified mechanic and engineer working for a company who are world-leading specialists for Ferraris.

“My background is in engineering, working with a lot of the older cars. If something broke on the car, we’d have to buy a piece of metal and make that part. I’d say that’s my biggest strength, the engineering side and looking at the drawings. Mixing that and my sales experience is a recipe for success.”

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

“I’m a runner, I run for my local club which is Wycombe Phoenix Harriers. I’m also club cross-country captain. I help to round up the troops for each race, and things like that.

“I ran the London Marathon recently, which I trained very hard for, and I’ve also got Chicago in October which I’m running as well.

“My story in running goes back to 2009 when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma, which is a type of cancer, and I had chemotherapy for a year. Whilst I was ill, the charity Make A Wish gave me a wish.

“I’ve been in remission ever since, and then about two or three years ago I decided that it was my time to give back to Make A Wish. A friend of mine was running the London Marathon and said, ‘Tom, why don’t you do the London Marathon and try to raise some money?’ and I said ‘yeah, why not?’

“I got into that, and then I started going to local parkruns and things like that, and I started to win pretty much every race which I was going to. So I thought, maybe I’ve got a bit of a talent here.

“From then, I ran the London Marathon and raised just over £3000 for Make A Wish, and I haven’t looked back since. I joined my local athletics club and have been competing ever since, trying to get my marathon time as low as possible to try and aim for that elite status. I’m closing the gap and trying to whittle those times down.”

“Alongside running, I also play golf here and there.”

Do you follow a sports team?

“I’m a big Liverpool fan; all of my family are Liverpool supporters.”

What is your favourite film or television genre?

“I like war films, like Saving Private Ryan. I like thrilling films.”

What’s your favourite holiday destination?

“So far, my favourite would be Chicago. I love the city, everything about it. Everything is bigger and the food is amazing.”

What’s something that you’ve always wanted to try or learn?

“I would like to learn how to swim competitively; I’d like to get into the triathlon side of things. I’d do that once I’ve gone 100% into running, once my potential has been hit in running, I’ll turn my attention to the three sports of running, cycling and swimming for triathlon.”