Dr. Thomas Butler is former Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the Cooley Electronics Laboratory and Industrial Sciences Group at the University of Michigan.

Butler is the co-author with Dr. Bacon of Planned Innovation and Achieving Planned Innovation. He is originator of the "Innovation Board" concept, and is a member of several boards.

Butler has extensive industrial experience with the development of new products. He is former Vice President-Technical Director of the Genlyte Group which designed and developed electrical lighting products. He is also former Vice President for Research, Engineering and Manufacturing worldwide for AMF Corporation where he was the driving force in the development of numerous new products for recreational product-markets such as bowling, boating. gymnastics, and golf. He retired from industry to serve as Dean of Engineering at Oakland University, and later as a member of the Planned Innovation® Group.

Dr. Butler received his BSEE degree, MS (Physics), and PhD at the University of Michigan. He lives in Sun City West, Arizona.