Beyond Baseball: Pepe Brings ‘People First’ Mentality to Loons Front Office
Recently, someone asked Thomas Pepe what he stood for.
Pepe’s response rolled naturally off his tongue — “People first. Always.”
In 2014, the Great Lakes Loons hired Pepe as a Ticket Sales Associate. After moving up to Director of Ticket Sales, he is now the Assistant General Manager of Ticket Sales at Dow Diamond.
“I watch over the ticket office,” Pepe said. “More importantly, I take care of our season ticket holders.
“The entry level is taking care of the fan’s needs and being up close and personal. As the assistant general manager, there’s the financial side of things. It still includes everything before, there’s just more on top.”
Pepe, 65, has a long journey featuring work in the fields of business, education, and medicine. With every step he’s taken, Pepe has held customer service in the highest regard.
“Everything I’ve ever done has a people theme through it,” Pepe said. “Now I’m with the Loons thanks to an opportunity to work part-time on the ticket window for the 2014 season.”
Pepe’s journey as a “lifelong learner” began in San Vito dei Normanni Air Station with the United States Air Force. The former serviceman was stationed in Italy for three years as a medic during the Vietnam War era.
“San Vito dei Normanni just happened to have a tiny hospital,” Pepe said. “I oversaw 4,000 dependents. I took care of the folks when they got a cold and needed dependence.”
During his time in the United States Air Force, Pepe met Maj. Barry Morrison. Ever since the two first interacted, Pepe has copied Morrison’s style of interactions with others.
“There was something magnetic about him with the way he treated and respected people,” Pepe said. “Barry Morrison would walk around from department to department, sit down with coffee and chat with you. I used to call it MBWA: Management by Walking Around.
“From the moment I met Barry, I emulated his style and adopted what he did to make it my own.”
After being given honorable discharge and awarded the United States Air Force Commendation Medal, Pepe moved on in his career to the University of California Medical Center in San Diego to work in the emergency room as a member of the transplant and bone and tissue team. Later, he was a clinical administrator for divisions of radiation oncology and radiation biology.
In March 1987, Pepe’s medical journey came to a close. One month later, he was the foods and hardlines manager and training manager for Price Club in Hayward, California, which merged with Costco in 1993.
“I opened a warehouse at 3:45 a.m. with guys on forklifts,” Pepe said. “I was taking care of folks in a different way. I was the facilities guys, then I rose through the ranks and another opportunity presented itself.”
Pepe worked his way to the top at Price Club, then decided to move to HomeBase, Inc. from 1989 to 2000 as a business development manager. He oversaw 300 salaried managers and 2,400 hourly employees.
“I was a full-on general manager and they gave me the most difficult unit,” Pepe said. “We had a good time doing it and sales went through the roof. People wanted to know what we were doing, but it was just treating people with importance, recognition, and support.”
Every Friday at HomeBase in Irvine, California was Hawaiian Shirt Day. Pepe, along with all his employees, participated. He saw it as an opportunity to create unity among everyone in the building.
“The president of the company was so amazed at the turnaround of the building that he wanted to come in,” Pepe said. “I said he could come as long as he wore a Hawaiian shirt. I wanted my folks to see that they were respected.”
The president of HomeBase liked Pepe’s idea so much that he adopted Hawaiian Shirt Day throughout the entire company.
Once again, Pepe made it to the top and left HomeBase in December 2000. A month later, he started his own consulting practice called MindSet Communications in San Diego, which he ran until May 2004.
Pepe’s life took a major twist halfway across the North Pacific Ocean to Kamuela, Hawaii in 2004. He was led to The Aloha State due to having a quadruple bypass, which is an open heart surgical procedure to improve blood flow that feeds the heart.
“My doctor told me to go kick back in Hawaii and friends there wanted me to watch their bed and breakfast business during a New Zealand vacation,” Pepe said. “I sold everything off (at MindSet Communications), packed everything up into a cargo bucket, shipped it off to the big island and just went.”
While Pepe’s “people first” mentality was developed early in his career, it was re-solidified in Hawaii. He was accepted into the Hawaiian family and gained the respect of many in the culture.
“It’s almost like you’re in a foreign land, but you’re still in the United States,” Pepe said. “You aren’t connected at all. There are active volcanos, earthquakes every day, things are shipped in, and you can’t go island to island by any other way than a plane. It’s unique.
“The people in Hawaii are people first always.”
Pepe went to multiple different businesses for 18 months in Hawaii to help others before deciding he wanted to find his own again — at Waimea Middle Public School.
“It was a private charter school with 540 students,” Pepe said. “I was able to enter in as director of operations, which covered management, information technology, human resources and really everything on the non-academic side.”
After working as the director of operations, Pepe was offered a job as the principal and CEO of the school. He decided to take on all three jobs at Waimea Middle School.
“The school was students first,” Pepe said. “Every single day I invited kids in to sit around my table and chat. I wanted to know what their ambitions and dreams were. It was never built that way. I made it a priority.”
Pepe developed many relationships with students during his three years. He also helped athletic, music and artistic programs for children. He said the people of Hawaii are very talented.
The final three years in Hawaii for Pepe were spent working as a project analyst for Ho Okena Development. With his position, Pepe took direct managerial responsibility for financial, human resources, informational technology and facilities functions of the company.
Pepe’s son, a graduate of West Point, ended up in Oscoda, Michigan, and brought his father to The Great Lakes State. His son then accepted a job in New York, leaving Pepe to find a new path.
After four years as a sales representative for Nabisco, the answer to his new journey was 100 miles south of Oscoda at Dow Diamond in Midland.
“The thing that enamors me most about tickets is it’s not all about tickets,” Pepe said. “It’s about learning people’s stories. Everyone that sits in my chair and before we leave, they will know a part of my story and I will know some of their story. It’s a great way of doing business.
“If you put people first, numbers will come.”
When Pepe was just five years old, his father passed away. As a result, he became the man of the household, looking after his mother and younger brother.
“My mother worked very hard and always took care of us,” Pepe said. “From that kind of an upbringing, it wasn’t easy. Nothing has ever been given. In my own way, through each one of these jobs, it’s been people first always.
“I want to make someone’s journey a little easier.”
When fans come to Dow Diamond to watch their beloved Loons take the field, Pepe wants people to know they will enjoy themselves, as he remains focused on three things people want in life — “to feel important, to be recognized and to be supported.”
When asking the Loons Assistant General Manager of Ticket Sales what he stands for, Pepe will tell you — “People first. Always.”
