Charlie Tomm is Chairman & CEO of Pablo River Partners, an investor in retail automotive dealerships. He is also an automotive industry specialist with Heritage Capital Group.
Charlie was President & CEO of Brumos Automotive (two Mercedes-Benz, one Porsche and two Lexus stores, plus a collision center) from January 2009 through March 2016, when the company’s assets and operations were sold to Fields Auto Group. Previously, he was President & CEO of the Coggin-Courtesy subsidiary of Asbury Automotive Group Inc. (ABG, NYSE). During his tenure with the company (1994 – 2008), he managed the mergers of Coggin with Asbury in 1998 and with Courtesy in 2003. Coggin/Courtesy had 25 dealerships, revenue of $1.7 billion and 2,100 employees. His prior business experience was in investment banking, oil field services (Schlumberger Ltd.), trucking (ABF Freight Inc. and PIE Nationwide Inc.), and the private practice of law in New York City with Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts.
He is a trustee of Mayo Clinic (and chair of its audit and compliance committee), and a director of Shoe Carnival Inc. (SCVL, NASDAQ). He previously served as a trustee of Washington & Lee University (1999 – 2009), a trustee and chair of Jacksonville University (2014 – 2019), a trustee of The Bolles School (2016 – 2020), chair of the American Cancer Society Campaign for Hope Lodge in Jacksonville (2013 – 2019), a director of HabiJax (Habitat for Humanity in Jacksonville, 1999 – 2007 and 2011 – 2015), a commissioner and chair of the Jacksonville Housing Authority (2002 – 2010) and a lacrosse coach at Bolles (2003 – 2015). He was also a director of Florida Bank Group Inc. from 2007 until its merger with IberiaBank Corp. in 2015, and a director of Asbury (2000 – 2002 and 2005 – 2007).
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.
