Thomas Scholl

BA 1970, Philosophy

CEO at shoalscrollschool&skull

Tom Scholl is a successful entrepreneur and investor with experience sitting on both sides of the boardroom table. He has over 25 years experience in communications systems, equipment, chipsets and software, and has been active in the high-tech start-up scene in the Washington metro area for over 15 years.

Scholl currently retired from the boards of Novak Biddle portfolio companies Centice, Paratek, Princeton Optronics, Fiberzone Networks and Avail TVN, and had previously participated on the boards of Command Information (acquired by Salient Federal Solutions) and Digital Bridge Communications.

In 1990, Scholl founded Telogy Networks, a leader in providing embedded communications software products for wireless and IP networks. In 1998, Motorola purchased Telogy’s digital cellular technology and development team for over $40M, and in 1999, Texas Instruments purchased Telogy as the leader in embedded VOIP software for over $700M.

Prior to joining Novak Biddle, Scholl co-founded and was chairman of Cognio, a developer of spectrum management and MIMO antenna technology for wireless applications. Cognio was acquired by Cisco in October 2007. Scholl has also served as a Director of Torrent Networking, acquired by Ericsson, and Integrated Telecom, acquired by PMC Sierra.

In 2011, Scholl was voted and awarded the Venture Capital "Friend of the Entrepreneur" by the Washington Business Journal. In 1995, Scholl was recognized as the Joseph A. Sciulli "Entrepreneur of the Year" by the Maryland High Technology Council.

Scholl is a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Maryland and Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the A. James Clark School of Engineering. He is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, receiving Purdue’s Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2009.

Scholl has patents relating to software, the Internet, and digital telephone systems, and he is the author of "Packet Switching" in McGraw Hill’s Electronic Communications Handbook. He’s a member of IEEE and ACM, and the Executive Management (non-degree) program at MIT Sloan School.

Scholl resides in Bethesda, MD.