BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS E. SHANKS, PH.D. 

Dr. Tom Shanks is a nationally known ethics, organizational development, and leadership consultant and coach. Tom is currently president of The Ethics Company (Los Gatos, CA) which he founded in 1992. For over 30 years, Dr. Shanks has worked with leaders in every sector to build mission-driven, values-centered, ethically grounded organizations which deliver results and excel at earning the trust of external and internal stakeholders.  

In 1999, the San Jose Mercury News named Tom Shanks one of the Millennium 100, approximately 100 people over the last century who “made Silicon Valley what it is today” and wrote: “As Executive Director (of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University) from 1992-1999, Shanks elevated the Center into the region’s standard bearer for teaching the value of ethical conduct – not only in high technology, but also in the health industry, government, banking, public service and other disciplines” (S.J. Mercury News, December 19, 1999.) 

Shanks was a founding member and chair of the governing board of the Ethics Center (1985-1999), Executive Director (1992-1999), Director of Business Ethics and Public Policy Programs (1999-2000), and Senior Fellow in Business Ethics and Public Policy (2000-2002). Under his leadership, the Center became one of the nation’s pre-eminent Ethics Centers serving campus and community constituencies. 

As a full-time faculty member at Santa Clara University (1977-2007), Shanks founded and chaired the Department of Communication (1985-1991) and was the Department’s first tenured Associate Professor (1988-2007). He served as  College of Arts and Sciences Senior Associate Dean (1990-1995). Tom taught courses in engineering and political ethics, new technologies, Internet and Society, public policy, survey research, journalism, and all areas of video writing and production. With students and colleagues, Shanks developed and co-facilitated the Student Reflectors’ Program, and led a successful multi-year effort to develop modern, professional, and award-winning student-run publications.  

In 1995, Shanks partnered with O’Connor Hospital to establish the Applied Ethics Center at OCH and served as the Chair of its Steering Committee from 1995-2002 and also served as a special consultant to the hospital’s ethics committee and administration. In 1997, he partnered with the Santa Clara County Medical Association on a year-long project, The Care in Managed Care, seeking to improve patient care by establishing common ground among hospitals, physicians, and insurance companies. From 2015 to 2019, he served as a consultant and facilitator for El Camino Health’s clinical ethics committee (Mountain View, CA).  

Shanks partnered with the City of Santa Clara from 1998-2015 on a City-wide ethical leadership program. Tom designed and facilitated the first values-based consensus Code of Ethics & Values in the State of California. With City officials and staff, he created and conducted the Campaign Ethics Program (2000-2015), and the Vote Ethics Public Outreach  Program (2004-2014). These Programs won awards and recognition from the International City Management  Association (2000), the League of California Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence (2000, 2002), and the United  Nations (2002), when it named Santa Clara as one of just two “best practice” programs in campaign ethics worldwide. 

Shanks also conducted multi-year programs with the City of Milpitas, the Santa Clara County Library System, the  County’s Early Childhood Local Planning Council, and the cities of Atascadero and Rancho Palos Verdes. He has  conducted ethics and team-building workshops for, among others, the League of California Cities, East Bay MUD, and  the Cities of Sunnyvale, San Carlos, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and San Mateo, Leadership Santa Clara, Leadership Los  Gatos, and the Counties of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara.  

Dr. Shank’s corporate clients have included Juniper Networks, the Charles Schwab Corporation, Edwards Lifesciences,  Investment Management Consultants’ Association, and the start-up technology company, Propel, whose ethics and  values program was featured in a cover story in SV (Silicon Valley), the Sunday magazine of the San Jose Mercury News  (“Value Judgments: Do Well or Do Right?”, April 16, 2000, pp. 8-16.) He advised San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation  (1993-2002) on its integration of ethics throughout the museum. 

Tom has a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Saint Louis University (1971), an M.S. in Education from Fordham  University in New York City (1975), a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (1977), and a  Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Research from Stanford University (1985). Shanks was a Jesuit priest from  1977-1999.

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