Charles B. (Charlie) Tomm is Chairman & CEO of Pablo River Partners, an investor in retail automotive dealerships. He is a director of Shoe Carnival Inc. (SCVL, NASDAQ), a leading retailer of family footwear serving as its lead director and as chair of its Audit Committee, and a director of Margo Caribe, Inc., a wholesale garden products company. He is also an automotive industry specialist with Heritage Capital Group.
Charlie was President & CEO of Brumos Automotive (2 Mercedes-Benz, 1 Porsche and 2 Lexus stores) from January 2009 until it was sold in 2016. He entered the retail automotive business in April 1994 as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & General Counsel of Coggin Automotive and was President & Chief Operating Officer when publicly-held Asbury Automotive Group Inc. (ABG, NYSE) acquired the company in late 1998. He was President & CEO when the Coggin and Courtesy subsidiaries of Asbury were merged in January 2003 to form Coggin/Courtesy AutoGroup and continued in that position until August 2008. Coggin/Courtesy had 25 dealerships, revenue of $1.7 billion and 2,100 employees. Prior to entering the retail automotive industry, Charlie was Executive Vice President & COO of PIE Nationwide Inc. (trucking), an investment banker, Deputy General Counsel of Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB, NYSE – oilfield services), Vice President & General Counsel of Arkansas Best Corporation (ARCB, NASDAQ – trucking, now ArcBest Corporation), an adjunct professor of law at the University of Arkansas and in the private practice of law with Winthrop Stimson Putnam & Roberts (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pitman) in NYC.
He is an emeritus trustee of Washington & Lee University and of Mayo Clinic (and was chair of its audit and compliance committee for 9 years). Formerly, he was a trustee of The Bolles School, a trustee and board chair of Jacksonville University, chair of the American Cancer Society Campaign for Hope Lodge in Jacksonville, a trustee of HabiJax (Habitat for Humanity in Jacksonville), a commissioner and chair of the Jacksonville Housing Authority, chair of the Jacksonville Sports Council and a lacrosse coach at Bolles for twelve years.
Charlie is married to the former Anita deSaussure and has three children. He served on the Navy’s only troop-carrying submarine as a diver and officer (1968 – 1972) and in the active reserves (1972 – 1975), and earned the Navy Achievement, Viet Nam Service, Viet Nam Campaign and National Defense Medals. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Washington & Lee University and a master of laws in taxation from New York University.
