Tom Potter

Tom Potter comes from humble beginnings in regional Australia, with his family involved in agriculture and small business for four generations.
He left school and home at a young age to pursue a baking apprenticeship. After completing his trade, he backpacked across Australia, playing AFL football and working as a baker. His unique technical knowledge and understanding of food chemistry led him deep into the baking and flour milling industries, where he identified an opportunity to 
launch Australia’s first regional pizza chain - Eagle Boys.
Over the next 20 years, Tom grew Eagle Boys to more than 350 stores, making it Australia and New Zealand’s largest privately owned pizza company.During this period, he was named Australian Young Business Person of the Year, earning 
a scholarship to attend Harvard Business School in the USA, where he graduated as class valedictorian.
Tom has served on a number of company and government boards, including Brumby’s Bakeries, the Ports Corporation of Queensland, Soul Origin (Chairman), Doc Popcorn (USA), Wallace Bishop Jewellers, the Board of Brisbane and the AFL Commission.
He has been named an Australia Day Patron and is a member of the worldwide Young Presidents’ Organisation and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Tom was inducted into the inaugural Franchise Council of Australia Hall of Fame.
After 20 years, Tom sold Eagle Boys to investment bankers, only to witness the company only to witness the company 
collapse some ten years later. In 2009, he released The Eagle Boys Story, which has since sold more than 15,000 copies worldwide.
After a brief retirement, Tom returned to business and now operates Crusty Devil Bakehouse and Galactic Donuts with various partners in Queensland.
As a public speaker, Tom has travelled extensively throughout Australia and internationally, captivating audiences with his down to earth and often humorous approach to business and its many challenges, both highs and lows.

His passion for business strategy, effective marketing and leadership combined with his philosophy of “standing out like a zebra amongst horses” delivers a speaking style rarely seen on the public speaking circuit. Tom brings the perspective of someone who has built a business empire more than once and lived to tell the tale. His passion with 
audiences is to “educate and entertain” as he believes “to keep them laughing is to keep
them listening”.

Above all, Tom’s greatest passions are his family, golf, AFL football and the daily thrill of being back in the cut and thrust of business