J.R. Tomkinson

J.R. TOMKINSON

The Broad Residency Class of 2004-2006
Current Organization: Tomkinson Automotive
Residency Placement: Chicago Public Schools
M.B.A., Kellogg Management at Northwestern University, 2004
B.A., English, Dartmouth College, 1996

JR Tomkinson, a Kellogg M.B.A., says The Broad Residency allowed him to take on a lot more responsibility at this stage in his career than he would have been able to anywhere else. 

“It’s been invigorating, extremely challenging, certainly a roller coaster,” he says.

From the 2004 start of his Broad Residency in Chicago Public Schools through today, Tomkinson quickly rose from project manager to manager and then to his current role as officer, a senior position overseeing 67 staff members. Today, he manages a $4 million budget and oversees the delivery of district business support for some 2,000 staff in more than 900 buildings, nearly all of them schools.

How did he advance so quickly? By changing the way the $5 billion district conducts its daily operations.

Before Tomkinson arrived, Chicago Public Schools’ business operations, like those of most school districts, were split in independent silos based on function—one to help schools manage their budgets, another to help schools use technology and so on. The effect was that principals, who desperately needed to lead the school, were too often drawn away in order to simply transact with the district.

“The quality of internal services delivered to principals was at best inconsistent. There was little accountability for services provided—one hand was not talking to the other,” says Tomkinson.

The solution, Tomkinson proposed, was to consolidate all independent business services under the roof of one business service center, where managers could be held accountable for customer service.

So Tomkinson went to work. He designed the business service center, launched the first center and is now supervising the management of all the centers.

This steep growth in responsibility grew out of one of Tomkinson’s first projects as a Broad Resident. He was tasked with figuring out how to restructure the district’s business services in a way that didn’t cost any money. “What used to take six signatures under the bureaucracy is now accomplished through swift technology,” he says. Today, 96 percent of principals find business service center employees accessible and responsive. And as they are spending less time simply trying to contact the right district staff, principals now have more time to spend on student needs.

Tomkinson says breaking new ground is the best part of his job. “It is very exciting—few if any other school districts are doing what we’re doing. The innovative nature of the job—building a department really from scratch—is a thrill. It’s surprisingly entrepreneurial.”

Now he takes great pride in focusing on how to further improve service delivery by transitioning from service by phone to service online. “The degree of fulfillment you can get from having a positive impact on hundreds of thousands of kids, combined with the level of responsibility and the type of work—it’s pretty hard to find this combination anywhere else.”