Tom Cat, as he is known by most of his colleagues, has been a prolific author, writer, speaker and cutting edge leader in the veterinary profession for over two decades. He has authored over 300 periodical and proceeding articles, and speaks 10 to 15 times a year at national and international veterinary meetings. He has consulted with over 2000 practices, and has 14 contemporary management/leadership texts, from four respected technical publishers, to his credit; three of which are in hospital design. He was the first veterinarian to gain board certification by the American College of Healthcare Administrators (1991). Then in 1996, he qualified for Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (less than 10 percent of the 30,000-plus members of ACHE achieve this recognition). In 1991, he founded Catanzaro & Associates, Inc., and federally trademarked Veterinary Practice Consultants, and grew to be the largest, diplomate-led, veterinary-exclusive, team-based, consulting firm in veterinary medicine today. In 2000, Baylor awarded him the distinguished alumnus recognition, again the first veterinarian ever to be so recognized.
In 2007, it was decided that the paper-heavy, phone-heavy, format of Catanzaro & Associates, Inc. (d.b.a. Veterinary Practice Consultants) was no longer serving the profession in a "new millennium" way. To better serve the International veterinary profession, Dr. Tom Cat committed to reorganizing his consulting services into an electronic-based, worldwide, veterinary consulting service. Blackwell Publications and Veterinary Information Network (VIN) have been major factors in allowing this world-wide transition to occur. Veterinary Consulting International was established to better meet the new emerging professional demands around the globe, and the Internet was chosen as the communication playing field. Paper must give way to electronic messaging and formats, in practice, as well as in consulting. Demands are expected to be met almost instantaneously, by our clients and by your clients. Instead of building a stable of savvy associates, Veterinary Consulting International (VCI) will affiliate with and refer to respected consulting and industry leaders in veterinary medicine, while providing veterinary practices with on-site, leadership training, team building, and management assistance, with instruments tailored to the diversity of veterinary medicine.

In 2010, Tom Cat assumes the role of Hospital Director, at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Adelaide (Roseworthy Campus), South Australia. As such, on-site consulting by Tom Cat will be curtailed and only e-mail consulting can be done. Tom Cat is still designing hospitals by desk audit, reviewing financials of clients, and accepting speaking engagements around the world. He will also be staffing the National Boy Scout Jamboree in late July and early August at Fort A.P. Hill (look for him at the Merit Badge Midway). Tom Cat has already started to direct potential clients to skilled affiliates, so NEVER hesitate to bump him personally, DrTomCat@aol.com, and ask for a reference to an outstanding colleague who Tom trusts.

Dr. Clayton McKay, Hill's Canada and AAHA Past President, has said, "Tom Cat will be dead 20 years before we really understand what he has contributed to this profession." The practices that have engaged him for a Partners in Progress consultation have experienced a 16 to 68 percent immediate increase in practice growth, so they don't have to wait that long to realize the impact of "team-based veterinary healthcare delivery", which is the topic of book #14, soon to be published by VIN.

[Veterinary Consulting International, 67 Chartwell Street, Aspley, QLD 4034, Australia. Phone: 61+4-1628-5975; FAX: 61+7-3865-2368; e-mail: drtomcat@aol.com]