Our October Meeting Speaker

Vice president of America First SW Florida Caucus

Thomas Babicz was born in Gdańsk, Poland, during the Soviet occupation. He experienced severe poverty during his youth due to poor economic conditions under communism. Focusing heavily on education and sports from a young age, Tom competed against the best students in town and won the title of top elementary school student in Gdańsk. He also captained his school handball team, which won a silver medal at the Young Olympics in Warsaw.

Thomas graduated from Telecommunication Technical High School in 1974. He could not afford to study, because of the widespread poverty under communist rule. He had to attend a Polytechnic Institute in the evenings after work, hoping for a better future. He worked in the IT department of the Gdańsk main Post Office, where his ideas and new computer system he installed by himself only, tripled production efficiency in 1980. After management discovered his involvement with a local underground anti-communist organization, he was asked to resign despite his major workplace improvements.

Thomas then joined the Solidarity Trade Union at a building construction company in Gdańsk-Kokoszki, working as a computer programmer. Through his innovations during his first year, he saved the organization over a million PLN. Seeing underground copies of Newsweek maps that showed the Russian army massed at the Polish border, Thomas’s father feared his son would be executed. Believing Thomas had the potential for a better life in the West, his father urged him to escape.

Thomas realized his dream of freedom might become a reality when he discovered a hole in border security during a visit to West Berlin. When the time was right, he requested and received political asylum in West Germany. Shortly after, he applied for and was granted immigration status in the United States. His efforts paid off when he landed at JFK Airport in New York City in 1982 with $32 in his pocket.

Although he spoke three languages, English was not one of them. Undeterred, he set his sights on learning to read and write English while doing menial labor for food and shelter. He survived his first two weeks in America on one slice of pizza per day and sink water. His American Dream began as a janitor cleaning bathrooms at Bank of America. Despite the minimum wage, he was happy because he knew he had reached the Land of Opportunity and enjoyed a higher standard of living than he would have had in communist Poland.

His professional climb began with a second job at a butcher shop, where he optimized the unloading of delivery trucks. He later worked at an art gallery warehouse, leading a complete reorganization of its inventory system. After improving his English, Thomas returned to computers. Three years after arriving at JFK, an international corporation hired him as a computer programmer. Promotions followed quickly to Network Manager and then Senior IT Manager, where he oversaw thousands of workstations and thousands of servers across four data centers in New Jersey, Arizona, California, and Washington, D.C.

Nearing the peak of his IT career, Thomas managed staff, operations, projects, and budgets. In a complex cost-saving endeavor, he planned and executed the relocation of his corporation's entire computer system from New York City to New Jersey. Thanks to his meticulous planning and logistical genius, every machine powered up and operated flawlessly upon launch—an extraordinary feat in the IT industry. Later, he took charge of contract negotiations, saving his department $3.8 million over 20 months while mentoring other managers.

Thomas retired in 2019 after 35 years in American IT management. He and his wife, Barbara, moved from Edison, New Jersey, to Venice, Florida. Committed to community service, Tom was elected Vice President and then Treasurer of his HOA Board of Directors. He renegotiated all contracts, lowered the budget, and saved nearly $400,000. Following Hurricane Ian, which knocked down 400 trees, he paid all bills—including post-hurricane cleaning, painting two buildings, and repairing a long fence—without exceeding the budget. He was one of the few Florida HOA treasurers who did not levy a special assessment after the hurricane, and he was the only one who subsequently lowered HOA fees at that time.

Through his church, Thomas joined a Polish-American organization five years ago, serving three terms as Treasurer across different boards of directors and doubling the organization's funds. Tom was also elected Vice President of the America First South West Florida Caucus, a political organization, where he cut fixed expenses by 50%.

Thomas feels a deep appreciation for his adopted country and seeks to give back by improving the lives of others. He loves math, finances, spreadsheets and trading stocks. Tom’s hobby is to help other people. His main motivation and his dream are purchasing a building for the Polish community. Supported by his family, Tom Babicz remains a dedicated public servant committed to working tirelessly for his Polish and Sarasota County communities.