Tom Mellor

Tom Mellor currently teaches at the Ilinois State University College of Business, focuing on Business Information Systems.  Since 2023, Tom has been an Instructional Assistant Professor at ISU. He has been affiliated with the Scrum Alliance since receiving his Certified ScrumMaster (certification #503) in February 2005 and Certified Scrum Produce Owner in 2008 from Scrum co-founder Ken Schwaber.

Tom introduced Scrum and Lean into the State Farm Insurance IT Department in January 2004. He was mentored by Schwaber in the use of Scrum and Lean, and in becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) for State Farm. After earning his CST in April 2008, Tom was invited by Schwaber to join the Scrum Alliance Board and served on the Board until September 2010, including as Chair from September 2009 to September 2010.

He retired from State Farm IT in 2013 and created his own training and consulting business, focusing on agile-based product development and lean processing training and coaching,  Tom has taught Scrum and Lean to nearly 7,000 people in almost 500 workshops and at dozens of organizations and companies.  

Tom earned his Bachelors of Science in Finance from the University of Montana and his MBA from Louisiana State University. He has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Scrum Alliance, public radio station WCBU in Peoria, IL, The University of Montana Alumni Association, and the CPCU Society. 

Tom enjoys spending time with his family: wife, Maryann, and daughters Lindsey, Kristen, and Amanda. Tom also enjoys traveling, spoiling a good walk golfing, and walking his dogs Shelby and Finley. He has spoken at many workshops, conferences and Scrum Alliance Gatherings including as a keynote speaker at the 2017 Dublin Gathering. Tom enjoys teaching, mentoring and helping people learn, and develop technical products and apply Lean processes.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomellor/