Louis Tharp

Louis Tharp

Executive Director, Global Healthy Living Foundation

CEO, TGI Healthworks, Inc.

Triathlon Swim Coach

Author

After running a successful international public relations, advertising, and marketing company for nearly 20 years, www.clay.com , and working for some of the largest international PR and marketing agencies specializing in maritime, technology, health and dot coms, Louis Tharp, www.louistharp.com , became a social entrepreneur in 1999.

He co-founded and acted as venture capitalist for CreakyJoints, www.creakyjoints.org an international service organization and social media site for people with arthritis, RedPatch, www.redpatch.org, an advocacy organization for people with psoriasis, and CreakyBones, www.creakybones.org, a social networking site for people with osteoporosis which are now a part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit patient advocacy an access to care organization.

GHLF and Louis Tharp are also active in eliminating fail first practices within the healthcare industry where people are forced to fail on insurer-specified medications before they can take the prescription drugs their physicians prescribe www.failfirsthurts.org.

Previously, Louis Tharp was a contract writer for The New York Times and other daily newspapers. He published his first book, The Complete Manager's Guide to Promotional Merchandise (Dow-Jones Irwin) in 1989.

TGI Healthworks -- also co-founded by Louis Tharp -- produces and executes branded, measurable grassroots education events for chronic disease patients, caregivers and healthcare providers.

In 2005, he started the TGI swim coaching division, naming elite Swiss swimmer and All American Stefan Bill as senior coach www.sbillswimming.com. The division coaches elite, fitness, and phobic swimmers of all ages.

As the swim coach for the U.S. Military Academy Triathlon Team (West Point, NY), Tharp shared his training methods in his 2007 book, Overachiever's Diary: How the Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders, www.overachieversdiary.com published by Total Immersion www.totalimmersion.net.

An elite swimmer himself, Louis Tharp won a bronze medal at the 1998 World Masters, two gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Gay Games, and two silver and two bronze medals at the 2009 Outgames in Copenhagen.

He served on the Board of Visitors for the College of Business Administration at Butler University, Indianapolis, www.butler.edu where he graduated with both a B.S. and B.A. in Journalism in 1972, and was appointed by the Obama Administration in 2012 as a member of the Army Education Advisory Committee, reporting to the Secretary of Defense.