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Tom Mastaler
Retired & loving 7 Grandkids!
Professional Background
Tom Mastaler is a distinguished business leader celebrated for his extensive expertise in developing products, processes, and teams. With over 20 years of progressive leadership within business operations and engineering sectors, Tom has consistently demonstrated his ability to align technical and commercial strategies, fostering both continuous improvement initiatives and operational excellence. His visionary approach, combined with a deep-seated passion for engagement and accountability, has enabled him to successfully transform both individuals and organizations alike.
Throughout his career, Tom has been at the forefront of significant product innovations and operational enhancements. His leadership in the cordless business segment is particularly noteworthy, where he spearheaded the evolution of cordless power tools into primary applications. Through strategic technology planning and innovation execution, he not only led products to achieve hyper-growth but also secured his organization's position as an industry leader in profitability.
His accomplishments in this sector highlight his capacity to leverage technology and strategic foresight to elevate market competitiveness and operational efficacy. Tom's strategic mindset was further exemplified in his role in manufacturing strategy, where he skillfully implemented multi-year plans that integrated selective automation and vertical integration, significantly rationalizing products and processes across various factories and suppliers.
In his operational roles, Tom demonstrated a robust ability to construct and expand global product sourcing and manufacturing supply chains, which are crucial in today’s globalized economy. He has designed integrated logistics networks, ensuring efficient deliveries to regional distribution centers. His strategic initiatives during times of economic uncertainty were instrumental in facilitating rapid business turnarounds, allowing for sustained growth even during extended recovery periods across multiple regions.
Tom's dedication to product engineering has also made a significant impact, where he meticulously planned and executed all phases of the product life cycle for both new and existing offerings. His insistence on advanced technology and innovation aligns seamlessly with long-term global and regional business strategies, showcasing his commitment to staying ahead in a fast-paced market.
Education and Achievements
Tom Mastaler pursued his academic interests in engineering and business, earning a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the esteemed University of Notre Dame. This solid educational foundation laid the groundwork for his technical acumen and problem-solving skills, which have been pivotal throughout his career.
He further enhanced his professional credentials by obtaining a Master of Business Administration from Marquette University. This combination of engineering and business education has enabled Tom to bridge the gap between technical excellence and strategic decision-making, a skillset that has proven invaluable in his diverse career.
Tom has held several key positions in reputable organizations that have further solidified his reputation as a leader in product development and operational strategy. He served as the Senior Vice President of Operations at Milwaukee Electric Tool, where his leadership increasingly developed a culture of innovation and efficiency. His tenure at Black & Decker, where he acted as Vice President of Cordless Business Global Engineering and Manufacturing Strategy, showcased his visionary approach towards industry-leading practices. Additionally, he played a pivotal role in new product development and advanced manufacturing as the Director at Black & Decker.
Notable Achievements
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Industry Leadership in Cordless Power Tools: Under Tom's leadership, his team pushed the boundaries of product innovation within the cordless tools market, solidifying a competitive advantage that resulted in an unassailable position in terms of market share and profitability.
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Strategic Relocation of Manufacturing: His strategic foresight allowed organizations to relocate manufacturing operations to regions such as China, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, driving cost competitiveness while ensuring sustainable growth capabilities.
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Global Supply Chain Development: Tom has proven instrumental in creating integrated logistics networks that support robust inventory planning and execution, which are critical in today's dynamic economic landscape. His intervention during global downturns underlined his capacity for rapid response and turnaround strategies that promoted growth even in challenging times.
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Commitment to Innovation and Technology: By driving advanced technology and innovation in product engineering, Tom has consistently aligned product development with multi-year strategic business objectives, ensuring that offerings remain relevant and competitive in the market.
Tom Mastaler's career trajectory is a testament to his exceptional skills in transforming organizations through innovation, strategic thinking, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.