Columnist

Instructor

Motivator

Marketplace Strategist

Professional Athlete - Head Football Coach - Corporate Executive - Journalist eceiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication and Journalism from Northwestern University in 1961, Dick Thornton went on to excel in the violent world of professional football for 14 years. He was a standout star with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League and then captained the Memphis Southmen of the then…newly-formed World Football League...to a Divisional Title in 1974. Dick was elected to the Blue Bomber Hall of Fame 18 years ago and in 1993 was named to the CFL All-Time All-Star Team as one of the best 28 players in the history of the League. In 2004, he was also inducted into the Taft High School Hall of Fame for his outstanding lifetime achievements in both athletics and business. Coach Thornton has received recognition by the Canadian Football League (CFL) by having the biography of his football career published on their Website under the heading of CFL Legends. You can easily access this site by clicking on http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=45 In the mid-seventies, Dick became Athletic Director and Head Football Coach at Southwestern at Memphis college. In three short years, he amassed a 19-9-1 record, won two Conference championships and in 1977, produced the best team ever in the history of the school as SAM was ranked as high as 5th in the NCAA Division III standings. He still has the highest winning percentage at 647% of all past and present coaches though the real tribute to his success was his amazing ability to impact his player's - with dedication, heart and the extreme desire to win. After researching the potential rocky career path of university and pro coaching opportunities, he decided that there were more stable arenas within the Corporate business world. In 1979, he joined the Delta KMA of the Kroger Food Company (one of the USA's largest retail grocery chains) as the Merchandising Services Manager and the following year was quickly lured away by Coke USA Bottler Operations. After several years as a Senior District Manager, his international career took off and he essentially became the Coca-Cola Coach when transferred to the South Pacific Division based in Sydney, Australia. Over the next two years, he subsequently held the positions of Home Market Manager and Space Management Specialist in Oz, then in 1985 transferred to London, England to head up all the merchandising activities for Coca-Cola Northwest Europe. He returned Stateside again in 1992 to create, design and direct the 'Leadership for Marketplace Excellence' training and development programme...the purpose being to accelerate the growth of various high potential international managers. Each class consisted of eighteen participants from all points of the globe who spent a month in Atlanta learning the nine basic managerial skills - followed by a three week marketing project held on various continents. When the Company decided to take a more strategic approach to merchandising and training in 1994, Thornton saw a big opportunity to enhance in-outlet execution at the marketplace street level and gambled on early retirement to become an independent contract consultant and he's been on the go every since. His specialty areas include marketing, merchandising, point of sale design, executive training, in-field coaching, coordinating Market Impact Team's, making speaking engagements at trade shows and doing motivational seminars. Part of his golden parachute was to continue to work for TCCC as a free-lance consultant...so he chose SE Asia and worked within the Bottler System in the Philippines, Korea, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Vietnam and the islands of Guam and Okinawa. It was also during this period that he decided to call this part of the globe his permanent home. In 1997, his most challenging project was to coordinate and lead Operation Red Storm for F&N Coca-Cola. It was the largest MIT ever conducted in that part of the world, with 582 participants taking part from 14 different countries and his team's merchandising over 14,000 outlets in 4 weeks time. The resulting sales growth +28% Finally branching out into other FMCG categories, he accomplished successful projects with Asia Pacific Breweries out of Singapore, Seagram Wines & Spirits in Europe, the Chivas Regal Brand Group in Asia, Al Rabie and Binzagr Juice Companies in Saudi Arabia and the Empresas Polar Group of Companies in Venezuela, Latin America. In 2002, Coach successfully directed an eight month motivational and merchandising project for Thai Pure Drinks in Thailand that created a +37% increase for the Ratchada Sales Centre in Bangkok and his MIT adventures in 2003 extended to Australia, Asia, Mexico and South America for the IAM's Company followed by another series of Merchandising Workshops with Al-Rabie Juices in Saudi Arabia. His work slowed considerably in 2004 with the war in Iraq, but he kept busy assisting author, Craig Wallace in promoting his book, "A Slip In The Rain", and continued to write his columns for Beverage World and the Bangkok Post. At summer's end of that year, Coach was the headline speaker at the Microsoft HED Asia Retailer Conference held in Bangkok and then he flew to Tampa Bay, Florida to speak at a large beverage exposition called 'BevExpo'. Afterwards, he returned to Manila to begin his 8 month merchandising project for Distileria Limtuaco and Convoy Marketing. In June 2005, he made what was called - "The Coach's Farewell Tour of North America" and tied that trip in - with being the main speaker at a 'Gala Tribute Dinner' for his former Argonaut Head Coach, Leo Cahill in Toronto. In September, Coach flew to Munich, Germany to participate in the 'DrinkTec' Exposition and two months later, headed to Reykjavik, Iceland to celebrate his best friend's 50th birthday party. His tight friendship with Baring Olafsson goes back some 20 years when they both worked at The Coca-Cola Company together in Europe. Coach Thornton also had a banner year leading up and through Super Bowl XL in February, 2006 for his many readers in the Bangkok Post...coming out at a 54.4% winning percentage in his selections for the NFL season. A couple of fantastic projects are in the works starting in July doing sales & merchandising training in the Region...but in the meantime - the Coach continues to work at his computer on a daily basis - writing, editing and adding war stories to his biography. An active and competitive sportsman, he continues to hold a 15 handicap at golf and plays regularly in many local and regional tournaments all year round. A lover of warm weather and the outdoors, he thrives on coaching and teaching people about life while his energy, enthusiasm, charisma and leadership characteristics are unsurpassed with young people, colleagues, customers and consumers alike. Coach T lives on the 'Street of Dreams' in the heart of the Philippines Makati City night life district but commutes regularly to Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand for business meetings and golfing holidays. Coach T with son Rick Jr and grandson Trey