Tom Rollins

Tom Rollins is a 1978 graduate of Georgetown University where he competed in intercollegiate debate and was voted the nation’s “Outstanding College Debater of the Decade of the 1970’s.” He attended Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. He served as clerk to the Honorable James L. Oakes of the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals from 1982-83. Tom briefly practiced law in his hometown, Houston, Texas, with the firm of Susman Godfrey.

In 1985, Rollins became Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, which enjoyed broad jurisdiction over domestic policy, including federal education spending.

Rollins left government in 1989 to found The Teaching Company. Also known as “The Great Courses,” the company recruits the nation’s best college professors and lecturers, records their lectures, and sells the recordings to the public. The company has been described by The New York Times as “a force in continuing education” and by The Wall Street Journal as “the colossus of its field.” Rollins served as CEO and Chairman until selling most of his interest in 2006; he served as director until 2011.

Tom is married to law-school classmate Victoria Radd Rollins, a now-retired partner of Williams & Connolly LLP. They live with their teenaged children, Tom and Kay, in McLean, Virginia. Rollins supports debate programs at Georgetown, The Potomac School, and through the Houston Urban Debate League. He received the National Speech and Debate Association’s Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and the American Council of Trustees’ and Alumni Merrill Award for outstanding contributions to liberal-arts education in 2012. Rollins has set two Virginia bench-press records and won the competitive shotgunning “A-Class” World Championship at the World English Sporting Clays tournament in 2012.