Thomas J. Gagliardi Jr. (Industry experience over 40 years)

Thomas J. Gagliardi Jr. is the President and CEO of Thomas Industries. Tom has been with Thomas Industries for over forty years and is one of the most experienced auctioneers and appraisers in the country.  He has testified throughout the country as an expert witness in regards to equipment values for estate settlements, tax abatements, lender liabilities, and residual values.  Tom is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, Machinery Dealers National Association, World Presidents Organization and the National Auctioneers Association.  A graduate of the Missouri Auction School and the University of Vermont.

Joe Marshall (Industry experience over 35 years)

Joe Marshall has an engineering background that spans a period of over 35 years. He is well versed in equipment design, manufacture, re-building, process technology, and appraising assets.  Joe’s experience ranges from naval nuclear power, power generation, the metals industry, and clad electronic materials. He is a recognized international authority in the areas of rolling, bonding, and slitting in the metals industry.  Joe is founder and President of Technical Concepts, Inc. a unique company specializing in rolling mills, slitters, solder print-on lines, continuous casting lines, and annealing furnaces for the precious metals industry. Sales are on an international basis, providing complete turn-key packages from installation right through onsite training. Previously, Joe was the engineering manager at Handy & Harman and was responsible for all equipment design, and development of the clad metals program, with diffused gold platinum alloys.  Joe is a graduate of the Missouri Auction School.  Joe heads up the Coventry, Rhode Island office and is the managing partner of our Shanghai office.

Tom DeCosmo (Industry experience over 25 years)

Tom has been in the business for over twenty-five years and enjoys an excellent nationwide reputation as a foremost authority of metalworking machinery.  Tom is a member of the Machinery Dealers National Association, a certified appraiser with the Association of Machinery and Equipment Appraisers and a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.  Tom has earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in marketing from American International College. He is also a graduate of the Missouri Auction School.

Thomas Blakely (Industry experience over 25 years)

Thomas Blakely has been involved with auctions, liquidations and appraisals for over twenty-five years specializing in the High-Tech and Printed Circuit Board Industries. He has significant domestic and international experience liquidating single items, as well as entire plants. Tom also owned a manufacturer’s representative business that covered plastics, rubber, printed circuit board, wire, cable, food processing, chemical, waste recovery, etc.  Previously, he was in sales and marketing at General Electric. Tom graduated from the Missouri Auction School and has earned a degree from Washington & Jefferson College.

Tom Gagliardi III (Industry experience over 15 years)

Tom Gagliardi III is the Vice President of Thomas Industries and the third generation to complete understudy work at the company.  He has directly handled all phases of the auction and appraisal business for the past 15 years. Tom earned his senior designation with the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and completed all classes, study work and experience needed to be assigned this certification. To date, he has personally conducted thousands of appraisals throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico giving him the unique ability to ascertain values of all types. Tom is a graduate of the Missouri Auction School and holds current membership in the National Auctioneer’s Association (NAA) and Industrial Auctioneer's Association (IAA) further enhancing his awareness of current trends in machinery values.  Tom has served as an officer of the New England Chapter of the Machinery Dealers National Association (MDNA) and participated as a member of the Turnaround Management Association.

Jon Standish- Auction Coordinator
(Industry experience over 15 years)

Jon is a graduate of Goucher College and has earned a BA in Political Science and  European Studies. Jon has worked in the field as Thomas Industries' auction coordinator for over 15 years with both domestic and international experience. John is responsible for coordinating all phases of the auction process. Jon has personally been responsible for some of the largest multi-day auction projects ever to be conducted.  Jon’s responsibilities include: photography, obtaining nomenclature, setting up, coordinating all aspects of the auction day and overseeing the removal equipment. 

Irina Lekhmus- (Industry experience over 15 years)

Irina has been the CFO of Thomas Industries for over thirteen years. Irina is responsible for overseeing all financial matters at Thomas Industries including:  accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger maintenance, payroll, financial auction reports, etc.

Dan Beaudette

Dan is based out of our Guilford office and works with the appraisal and auction divisions. Dan, in addition to conducting nationwide appraisals is involved in all phases of our webcast bidding technology. He earned a B.S. degree from Wesleyan University.

Rick Ross

Rick heads up our real estate division. The real estate division through a partnership with Westmount Management, Inc. helps our clients evaluate, dispose of, renegotiate and acquire fee simple and leasehold real estate interests. He has a BS degree in Economics from the Boston College Carrol School of Management, is a Qualified Commissioning Process Provider (QCXP) from the University of Wisconsin, School of Engineering, is licensed by the State of Connecticut Real Estate Commission, and is a member in the Town of Branford, CT of the Inland Wetlands Commission.

Michael Ferrara (Industry experience over 30 years)

Mike is the Co-founder and President of Capital Asset Group, a regional clearing house for the liquidation of industrial and manufacturing assets. Using a variety of means, CAG works with the customer to arrange the best solution for asset disposition and logistics.

Dan Ryan (Industry experience over 25 years)

Dan Ryan has spent twenty-five years in the plastic industry both in processing and equipment related positions.  His experience includes eight years as a general manager of US operations for a major Swiss Manufacturer of injection molding machines.  He spent ten years as an equipment analyst for the world’s largest privately owned custom injection molding company.  Dan served as an onsite appraiser for hundreds of individual projects and has appraised numerous multi-plant plastics processing companies.

Guy Lewis (Industry experience over 45 years)

Guy Lewis brings over forty-five years of international experience in the textile industry. He has been the president of MGK Enterprises, Inc. since 1976, a company engaged in buying, selling and brokering all types of textile machinery. The company is heavily involved with exporting to South America and China. From 1946 to 1976 (CEO from 1959 to 1976) he was employed in the textile industry, specializing in the production of yarns for carpet and handcraft products.  He has a B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Harvard University.

Ralph Barnet (Industry experience over 30 years)

Ralph brings over thirty years of appraisals and liquidation experience in the trucking, mining, rail, and construction industries.  Ralph’s career began in his family business in 1969, steel and trucking business. After a successful sale of the family business Ralph joined Manufacturers Hanover Leasing/CIT Group, Inc.

As Senior Vice President he headed up a 17 person Equipment Management department that was responsible for the evaluation of 4,000 requests annually for all 8 operating divisions of CIT.  Sales of assets, both scheduled and non-scheduled, were managed on a day-to-day basis.  Annual sales were responsible for a net gain in excess of $6mm annually on average.  As head of the special loan workout group, He had significant involvement in major bankruptcies, work-outs and reorganizations, including providing fact and expert testimony on a range of financial, operational, valuation and related issues.  Graduate of CCNY; B.A. Fine Arts

Ray Radovich  (Industry experience over 26 years)

Ray brings over twenty-six years of experience in the computer and electronics industries. Ray has worked in sales and technical support for corporate networks, small business networks and home applications. Over the last decade, Ray has established relationships in salvaging and liquidating excess inventory for IBM, AT& T, Verizon and American Express.  He has earned a BS in Mathmatics from Fairfield University. 

Dan DeCosmo (Industry experience over 25 years)

Dan  has been involved for more than twenty years in the buying, refurbishing, and selling of used metal cutting and forming equipment.  Dan has an electrical engineering background and specializes in CNC equipment.  Dan’s ability to inspect and run sophisticated CNC equipment under power continues to be invaluable in evaluating machinery, especially individual pieces of off-leased equipment. He has earned a B.A. degree from Westfield State College.

Rose Caballes (Industry experience over 17 years)

Rose is a graduate of Berkley School with a degree in Business Management and has been actively involved in all phases of auctions and appraisals since 1987.  In addition to the task of developing new business relationships, Rose will work towards maintaining, defining and expanding existing relationships.