Immediate-Past Business Council of Alabama chairman and Foley businessman Thomas M. “Tommy” Lee has joined the board of directors of the Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund.
Lee is president and CEO of Vulcan Inc., an employee-owned aluminum products manufacturer in Foley. It makes aluminum coil and sheet and is the largest highway sign manufacturer in the United States. Vulcan Inc. products include stop signs, yield signs, along signs for underground oil and gas, and telecommunication, power, and other utility lines.
“I am proud to join AOSF as it strives to provide some of Alabama’s poorest children educational opportunity that they would never receive otherwise,” Lee said. “I have met many of the parents, and I can tell you we have a lot of desperate mothers and grandmothers who want their children to stay in school, succeed, and not become a statistic. AOSF is giving hope to these parents and great opportunity to the children.
“One of Alabama’s biggest challenges is providing the workforce need to our industry,” Lee said in release from the ASOF. “As a manufacturer myself, I understand how important this issue is. When we have an opportunity to educate children, keep them in school and focused on their future – whether college or career – it helps our communities and our state.”
BCA President and CEO William J. Canary said Lee is an outstanding choice for the board of the Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund that provides financial help to needy and deserving Alabama children.
“They say if you want dedicated, committed members for a board of directors, get folks who are busy,” Canary said. “Tommy is a very involved and experienced individual who has serves the business community well, serves his community and church well, and the state of Alabama in his various volunteer capacities.
“Leadership and competent oversight are his hallmarks and he’ll be an outstanding member of the AOSF board,” Canary said.
John H. Cooper, a partner in BCA member Sirote & Permutt PC, also serves on the ASOF board.
AOSF Executive Director Lesley Searcy said it is an honor for Lee to serve on the board.
“We appreciate his leadership, vision and most of all, his big heart for children in need,” Searcy said. “Tommy brings timely perspective of the issues facing our state and how innovations in education can provide much needed opportunities to underserved students. We look forward to growing our program and serving thousands of new families in the future.”
Lee has been active at the community, state, and national level since graduating from Auburn University. He was the 2016 BCA chairman, is a former chairman of the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, and a past winner of the Walton M. Vines Free Enterprise Person of the Year award.
Lee recently completed a three-year term on the NIST MEP National Advisory Board for small- and medium-manufacturers, and was a member of Class XVIII of Leadership Alabama. He has been president of several civic, local school, and professional organizations, and is active in his church, St. Andrew by the Sea, A Community Church.
The Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund provides nearly 2,000 low-income, K-12 students access to more than 150 public and private schools that better meet their unique needs. AOSF serves nearly 600 children in Mobile and Baldwin Counties with thousands more on the waiting list.