From Wall Street to Baghdad to Washington...

From Wall Street to Baghdad to Washington and beyond, Thomas J. Basile has been in the middle of the action on the biggest stories and hottest issues of the last decade.  With work for three US Presidents, two Popes, three presidential campaigns, and in challenging environments from Iraq to South Asia, Tom’s journey has given him a front row seat to history. 

His insights into Iraq, the War on Terrorism and the national political scene have made him a sought after lecturer and contributor on both television and radio. He most recently was a recurring guest on the Fox News Strategy Room during the 2008 Presidential election.

Tom is founder and Principal of Empire Solutions Consulting, a strategic communications and public relations firm based in New York.  He teaches at Fordham University’s Graduate Program in Political Science focusing on Elections and Campaign Management.  Tom is also the Managing Director of the Middleberg Sustainability Group^TM a special public relations firm that helps corporate clients develop and communicate ‘green’ products, practices and workplaces.

A former candidate for public office himself, Tom has been involved in national, state and local campaigns for more than a decade. He served as a consultant to the Republican National Committee during the 2004 Presidential Election cycle and is an alumnus of the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. Tom has also held senior level campaign management positions for local and state-wide contests.

In March, 2004 Basile returned from seven months in Baghdad, Iraq where he served at the request of the White House, as a Senior Press Advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority. While in Iraq, he was a spokesperson and strategist for the Coalition’s media operation. Together with the Deputy Mayor of Baghdad initiated the first regularly scheduled press conferences at Baghdad City Hall for the new, burgeoning local Iraqi press corps.

He was awarded the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Medal from the Department of Defense for his work with the Coalition. 

Tom’s environmental credentials go back more than a decade on the state and Federal level.  He is a former Director of the Office of Communications for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. During his time at the Agency he managed the EPA Administrator’s public liaison operation and developed media and stakeholder outreach initiatives for a variety of environmental issues.

He has often been called upon by the Bush White House and State Department to plan significant meetings and events for President Bush including the memorial service for the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts in Houston, the President’s 2002 meeting with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, activities surrounding the 57th United Nations General Assembly, and the 2003 visit to Nazi concentration camps outside Krakow, Poland. In 2008 he was a State Department representative to the Vatican delegation during the historic visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to New York.

Tom is also one of the few people in America to help plan and execute Presidential Inaugurations representing both the Congress (2005) and the President-elect (2001).

In 1997 he was named to the National Italian American Foundation’s 100 Stars List of prominent young Americans. Tom earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Hofstra University which recently named him its 2007 Young Alumnus of the Year.

He received his Juris Doctor from the Fordham University School of Law. He is an advisory board member of the Hofstra University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a trainer for the International Republican Institute, a world-wide democracy-building organization. Tom is a member of the New York Bar and resides in New York’s historic Hudson Valley.