Art of the Restart: Craton Consulting’s Tom Stergios Dedicates the Next Chapter of His Career to Helping Fellow Montanans Launch Theirs
Founder of Craton Consulting and the ATG Missoula Solution Center, Tom Stergios. Craton Consulting helps companies thrive by embracing Montana’s incredible workforce capabilities and hardworking talent. Photo courtesy of Craton Consulting
April 30, 2024
By Christina Henderson
Nearly one year after leaving ATG Cognizant, Missoula tech executive Tom Stergios has come full circle. With the launch of his new venture, Craton Consulting, Stergios and his colleagues at The Whole Group, an affiliated company, now share an office on the second floor of Missoula College – occupying the same space where ATG started the groundbreaking Aim Higher program in 2018. Developed in partnership with the University of Montana, Aim Higher trained transitioning workers from fields like logging and food service to become technology consultants in just 12 weeks.
For Stergios, the former classroom is an auspicious location to pursue the next phase of his two-part vision – bringing high-paying tech jobs to Montana and helping hardworking people across the state find onramps to satisfying careers.
Last May, the longtime tech leader was surprised to find himself at a crossroads. Today Tom Stergios is, in his own words, “invigorated, supercharged, and ready to pursue the art of the possible.”
Tom Stergios, left, gives a tour of ATG Cognizant’s new campus in the Old Sawmill District in Missoula to honored guests including Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, University of Montana President Seth Bodnar, and Montana First Lady Susan Gianforte in November 2022. Photo via Craton Consulting.
ATG Creates 300+ Tech Jobs, $650+ Million in Economic Impact in Western Montana
A native of Missoula, Tom Stergios graduated from Loyola Sacred Heart High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Santa Clara University in the Bay Area. When Stergios got his first job at Accenture in San Francisco coding custom COBOL billing systems, he began a nearly 35-year career in Quote to Cash software and consulting. He worked on six continents for Presidio Consulting, IBM, Cygent, and Convergys before joining Advanced Technology Group (ATG) in 2007.
Stergios was early to the remote work revolution. He and his wife, Mary Lou, found themselves in Washington, D.C. with one-year-old twins during the 9/11 attacks. The couple realized they wanted to be close to family and returned to Missoula in 2003. Stergios worked from his basement for years, and though he was active in the local community, his consulting career was a mystery to his neighbors.
“I was one of those people that just got on an airplane, and no one knew what you did,” Stergios said. “Some people thought I worked for the FBI or the CIA.”
Then Stergios met a former consultant turned business professor, Dr. David Firth, who convinced him to leverage local talent to grow his company in Montana. Stergios founded ATG’s Missoula Solution Center in 2011 and began a fruitful long-term partnership with the University of Montana that continues to blossom under the leadership of UM President Seth Bodnar. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, himself a successful tech industry entrepreneur, also served as a mentor and frequent partner in growing the company.
ATG grew fast, and by 2015 the Missoula office was the company’s largest. From the beginning, Stergios was on a mission to persuade more tech companies to open offices in Montana, taking clients for boat trips on Flathead Lake and helicopter rides in Glacier National Park. In 2017, ATG hosted the first in a series of Quote 2 Cast Summits, bringing hundreds of global Quote to Cash tech leaders to Missoula. The annual events featured high-profile speakers like Peter Coffee of Salesforce alongside guided fly-fishing tours.
In 2018, Stergios led ATG’s acquisition by Cognizant, a Fortune 200 company, ushering in a new wave of expansion. ATG opened a new headquarters in Missoula's Old Sawmill District in 2019, and expanded the campus in 2022.
Cognizant began adding 30 employees at a time through the Aim Higher program in collaboration with UM, AccelerateMT, and the Montana Department of Commerce. Aim Higher graduated seven cohorts, including four during COVID, with 216 total new consultants hired at ATG Cognizant. Many graduates came from non-technology backgrounds and sought new opportunities when service industries shut down during the pandemic.
At its peak, ATG Cognizant’s Missoula office grew to 300+ consultants working with 150+ clients around the world. According to economic impact studies conducted by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, ATG’s Missoula Solution Center created more than $650 million in economic impact for Western Montana.
The first cohort of graduates from ATG Cognizant’s Aim Higher Program pose at the company’s offices in Missoula. Launched in 2018, Aim Higher trained seven cohorts totaling 200+ transitioning workers to become Salesforce technology consultants, including many individuals displaced during COVID.
Craton Consulting Brings Montana's World-class Talent to Global Enterprises and Startups
In the wake of leadership transitions at Cognizant in 2023, Tom Stergios is still supportive of the company and their success in Missoula.
“Cognizant lived up to all of its promises that they made to us in the acquisition,” Stergios said. “They helped generate hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars of incredible office space. I have nothing but respect and admiration for what they’ve done here.”
According to Stergios, the career change freed him from the intensity of building one company to explore new opportunities that were always there.
“I created Craton [to build] more companies with the sole objective of creating jobs and economic value across the state,” Stergios said.
A craton (pronounced cray-taan) is a portion of the Earth’s crust that has achieved long-term stability, compared to the upper crust which is constantly shifting with earthquakes, volcanoes, and erosion. For Stergios, the craton is a metaphor for ideals and concepts in the business world that hold true despite ever-changing technology paradigms and business models.
The foundation for Stergios is “Integrity, honesty, transparency, hard work, loyalty, and teamwork. These are the bedrock principles - the cratons - that I believe are essential for driving a business to success,” Stergios said.
Craton Consulting has three areas of focus.
First, to support talent acquisition and development for companies considering Montana in their growth strategy.
Second, Craton Consulting will allow clients to tap into Stergios’ deep domain expertise in Quote to Cash – the entire sales cycle from sharing a quote with a prospect to receiving payment.
And third, the Craton Consulting Launchpad will make it easier for growing consulting companies to scale by helping them tackle challenges like assembling the right leadership team, leveraging funding, or establishing facilities.
One of Craton’s first partners is The Whole Group, a consulting company focused on delivering ServiceNow technology solutions to business and government clientele. Established by Peter Goodman in London, UK and Paul Andrew in Charlotte, North Carolina, the startup has a main office inside Missoula College and a goal of making rewarding tech careers available to Montanans. Many top leaders at The Whole Group are former ATGers.
“We firmly believe that a key pathway to wealth creation and community prosperity lies in accessible technology careers, especially those in a high growth platform category like ServiceNow,” said Holly Colbert, Vice President for Workforce Development and Delivery Excellence for The Whole Group. “We have a steadfast commitment to co-creating curriculum for individuals from all walks of life, from high school to those in later stages of their careers. We're committed to making this pathway accessible to as many Montanans as possible.”
The Whole Group Co-founder Paul Andrew was introduced to Tom Stergios through Salesforce while working at a previous company in Europe with a fast-growing Quote to Cash practice.
“When I decided to start a new business, I immediately spoke to Tom and looked at building a team in Montana,” Andrew said. "Culture, talent, and work ethic are critical in a software firm. There is something truly special about people in Montana, and it’s simply a great place to build a team.”
Stergios introduced The Whole Group founders to Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and University of Montana President Seth Bodnar, as well as partners at the Montana Department of Commerce, Montana Department of Labor, Montana Department of Indian Affairs, Accelerate Montana, Missoula College, and Helena College among others.
“Tom is one of the best hosts you will ever know,” Andrew said. “Working with Tom is a pleasure, and you’ll get to know Montana and its people well. That is priceless.”
Stergios views ATG Cognizant’s fast growth through rapid training of a quality Montana workforce as a playbook for what other companies can achieve, one that fills a crucial gap in the sector.
“Where the industry has focused on technology and business model change, there seems to be little focus on innovation in talent development,” Stergios said.
His formula for success is strategic and skills-focused, working with partners to develop programs for students and career-changers to learn about varied careers in the tech field and earn credentials that will help them get a job. Stergios then leverages his personal network to help match those trained job seekers with growing companies who need talent.
Stergios says he now spends his days reaching out to some of his 5,000+ LinkedIn contacts - innovative technology companies, Montana-based partners, and investors - who share his vision for creating opportunities for people.
“When I approach people and say, ‘Hey, can you be part of my network of helping younger folks or…people that are trying to make a job transition, [to] be a mentor for them,’ no one's ever turned me down,” Stergios said. “That's that good old Montana can-do neighbor spirit.”
For Stergios, the driving force behind his work at Craton Consulting is to create more jobs and opportunities across Montana, including in rural and tribal communities.
“I felt like that's the highest calling, the best achievement I had in my 34-year career was being able to take people with no technology background or limited technology background, and get them on a path,” Stergios said. “I remember when that [first Aim Higher cohort] got their first paycheck, and there were tears and hugs. It's just infectious to be able to be life changing for people. And, and so my next decade or more is going to be to…build that momentum back up.”
About the Publisher: Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is a nonpartisan nonprofit association of more than 200 high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information, visit MTHighTech.org or subscribe to our newsletter.
About the Author: Christina Henderson has served as executive director of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance since its launch in April 2014. She holds an English/Education degree from the University of Iowa and an MBA from the University of Montana.
