STANLEY E. THOMAS - FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN & CEO

In the early 1980s, Stan Thomas, a native Georgian, embarked on a successful career in real estate development that few ever aspire to, and fewer still ever attain. His passionate faith in Christ, love of family values, his kind tenacity coupled with his true and humble Southern honesty and charming approach to business, and life in general, have genuinely endeared him to his employees, his customers and anyone who has the good fortune to come to know him. Stan's almost magical demeanor has opened doors along the way for him to attract talent and opportunities to grow his fledgling endeavor into the industry-leading juggernaut that Thomas Enterprises, Inc. has become today.

Building Robust and Powerful Lending Relationships
As Stan struggled to build Thomas Enterprises through the late 1980s and 1990s, his business broadened both geographically and financially. Thomas, then solely a ''big-box'' developer, developed more than a dozen successful power centers in the Carolinas, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia comprising nearly 10 million square feet of retail space, as the firm focused its efforts primarily in the southeastern U.S. It was during this time and through his commitment to performance that Stan built his now robust and powerful relationships with several well-known banks and lenders.

Helping Powerhouse Retailers Penetrate New Markets
In the mid 1990s, while continuing to aggressively develop his own centers and partly as the result of requests and a high level in confidence in Stan's ability to deliver real estate solutions to his customers, Stan created an internal brokerage arm. This entity allowed many of his retailer friends, such as Home Depot and Target and with most of the national junior anchor retailers, to utilize his vision and resources to penetrate new markets even when those opportunities resided in a TEI competitor's development, and yet, once again, Stan's horizons were broadened both geographically and financially.

From Mega-Power Center Pioneer to the Next Evolution in Commercial Real Estate
Today, Stan continues to oversee all facets of his companies and is actively engaged in the day-to-day of development of several projects from coast to coast and at many points in between. He is recognized as a pioneer of the mega-power center, and through his ownership and successes with Forum Development he continues to push the envelope and is a major force in the evolution of the Lifestyle Center and Mixed-Use Development concepts.