El Centro College - Alumni Profiles

Tom Lazo
Founder and CEO, Lazo Technologies, Ltd.

"Community college provided me the framework that set me up for the rest of my life." It's fair to say that Tom Lazo believes in the value of hard work as the cornerstone of success. A computer programmer by trade, over the past three decades he has been in on the computer technology industry from the ground floor. And he firmly believes that along with hard work, education and leadership skills play a vital role in career success.

Tom began classes at El Centro in 1970. But it was only after a shaky academic start, and the encouragement of his parents and then his wife, that he got serious about getting educated. "It's not that I didn't have the right aptitude to succeed in college; I just didn't have the right attitude," he says. He found his motivation, made the dean's list while working full-time, earned an associate degree and launched into the brave new world of computer programming.

"Community college provided me the framework that set me up for the rest of my life," he says. "It gave me the educational skills set to help me develop leadership." And though he says he was fortunate enough to enter a profession that didn't require a four-year degree in its wild early days, he encourages aspiring professionals to pursue a bachelor's degree - after they've gotten the solid start of a community college education for two years. "In today's environment, community college is one of the best buys around," he says.

In 1980 Tom founded Lazo Technologies, Ltd., an electronics service company which includes technology and network services, logistics and manufacturing with an emphasis on telecommunications. In 2001, it was named No. 3 on SMU's Cox School of Business' top 100 fastest-growing businesses in Dallas.

But to Tom Lazo, good business isn't just about the bottom line - it's about giving back to his community and helping to mentor developing leaders. His community involvement includes chairing the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Dallas City Council Redistricting Commission and twice chairing the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau executive committee.

"Community involvement has been my M.B.A.," he says. “I like to encourage young leaders to get involved in their community to make it better. My attitude is that I want to leave things better than I found them, and I hope that someone else takes it from there and leaves it better than I did.” He is also firm about the role that community college education played in his own life. "Without community college," he says, "I would probably be just another computer programmer ready to retire."

For Tom Lazo, it all began here.