Thomas Payne

About

Degrees and Certifications

• PhD, Finance, University of Arkansas
• MBA, Finance Concentration, University of Texas at Dallas
• BS Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas

Teaching, Research, and Professional Areas

• Commercial Banking
• Financial Markets and Institutions
• Risk Management
• Financial and Economic Policy
• Leadership and Strategy  

Biography

Dr. Thomas Payne is a Professor of Finance at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Payne has taught finance and economics courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, published dozens of journal articles, and taught thousands of university students and banking professionals. From 2015-2026, Dr. Payne served as dean of the College of Business at Tennessee Tech, setting the college’s strategic, operational, and financial direction. The college serves approximately 1,500 business students across eleven undergraduate and two graduate programs. Under his leadership, the college expanded student experiential learning and career development opportunities, built public-private partnerships, and developed, enhanced, and expanded undergraduate and graduate programs, including the MBA, which now incorporates industry-relevant certificates, and the Master of Accountancy.

Active in the profession and the community, Tom is President of the Southern Business Administration Association (SBAA/Southern Deans). He serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for the Advancement of Management (SAM), the Upper Cumberland Workforce Development Board, the Executive Board of the Middle Tennessee Council - Scouting America, and as a board member of the Tennessee Jump$tart Coalition. Dr. Payne has led many AACSB accreditation peer-review teams and co-led the development of Tennessee Tech’s strategic plan, Tech Tomorrow. His previous service includes the Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Nashville Health Care Council Board of Directors. During his time in West Tennessee, he served as Chair of the Martin Industrial Board, member of the WestStar Leadership Board of Trustees, and president of the Southwestern Finance Association. A multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Tom is a past president of the Martin Rotary Club and a member of the Cookeville Rotary Club.

Tom served as a visiting professor at the University of Orléans (France), partnered with the Financial Services Volunteer Corporation to assist the Savings Bank of Albania during its privatization, and hosted a management program for Russian bank executives in less turbulent times. Throughout his career, Dr. Payne has given hundreds of presentations at state, national, and international conferences and professional banking schools, including the Tennessee Bankers Association Southeastern School of Banking, the Florida and Georgia Schools of Banking, and the Graduate School of Banking at LSU, where he received the 2013 Eugene Spragens President’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

Before joining Tennessee Tech in 2015, Tom served as the UT Martin Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking and Chair of the Department of Accounting, Finance, Economics, and Political Science. His professional experience also includes positions at Texas Instruments, Rockwell International, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arkansas, an MBA with a Concentration in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a PhD in Finance from the University of Arkansas. Tom and his wife Amy have two daughters, Rachel and Rebekah, and four granddaughters, Reese, Mary Eva, Langston, and Maisie, who live, work, and play in Nashville, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama.