Tom Acomb is the Chief Creative Executive and Design Principal at AOA and one of the company’s two founders. Defined by acuity and heartfelt enthusiasm, Tom oversees AOA’s creative division with an artistic eye, innovative drive, and high expectations. Always striving for close-knit team dynamics, he equally values his team’s welfare and creative skill. His ability to guide and direct designers, technicians, and artists alike is indicative of his multipronged approach to ideation and production.

Since founding AOA with his partner Mike Ostendorf, Tom has achieved an extensive portfolio of creative project work, emblematic of both technical reimagination and design excellence. In his more than thirty years of experience, Tom has worked in a variety of fields, ranging from commercial space tourism and hospitality to cruise lines and healthcare. Earlier in his career, he worked as a hands-on artist at Walt Disney World and in the art departments for feature films at Cinecittà in Italy, Ardmore Studios in Dublin, Pinewood & Shepperton studios in the United Kingdom, and Warner Brothers in Burbank, CA.

Tom was a founding board member of the Themed Environment Integration program at the University of Florida CityLab-Orlando Graduate School of Architecture. He is also an advisory board member to Dr. Bryan Mesmer’s INCLUDE program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP) program in 1992. He is the recipient of more than a dozen Thea Awards from the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and has been twice recognized as a Blooloop 50 Theme Park Influencer.