Tom Marrelli – Founder of DLT Solutions

As DLT celebrates our 20 year anniversary of providing the best-in-class IT solutions to the public sector, it’s a good time to pay tribute to the man that gave DLT our start. DLT was founded in 1991 in Herndon, Virginia by Tom Marrelli. Tom found himself in Washington DC by way of his birthplace in Sicily (Italy), and by way of Cleveland Ohio, where his family emigrated and he grew up. Tom’s original idea for DLT Solutions was to create a “reseller” and GSA Schedule holder in support of Oracle Corporation, a small growing business in those days who was having commercial challenges working with the federal government. Today, we’re an Oracle Platinum Partner, one of their largest government partners, and one of their largest partners worldwide. While DLT Solutions was a “sideline” business for Tom and his wife in the Washington area, he was the DC-based VP of the Federal Systems Division for a company based in Raleigh, NC, Exide Electronics. He led Exide’s federal division to new heights by spearheading the strategic capture of several federal opportunities in the Air Force, Navy and FAA. In the mid-90’s, he orchestrated a major FAA contract for Exide Electronics to re-engineer all 28 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) in the country, even though Exide Electronics had no history in systems implementation and integration across a complex power train architecture from the power sub-station to the wall outlet – “selling is not installing” he used to say. During the mid-90’s at Exide Electronics, he met and worked with DLT Solutions current President & CEO, Rick Marcotte, where they were both based in Raleigh, NC. Rick recounts the bi-weekly executive one-on-one meetings with Tom which were held at the local cigar shop with Tom sitting back in a barber’s chair while inhaling a stogie the size of a microphone. According to Rick, “Tom said he did his best thinking while smoking a good cigar and sitting in the barber chair. I think he solved the Middle East peace problem during one of his 45-minute stogie sessions.” Although Tom and Rick stayed in touch during the late 1990’s and beyond on a personal level, their career paths didn’t re-connect. Upon Tom’s passing on December 24^th, 2002, the executor of Tom’s estate asked Rick to serve on the Board of Directors of DLT Solutions. And the rest as they say is history. A consummate strategic sales executive originally trained at AT&T, Tom’s philosophy was to always think BIG.  The current DLT Founder’s Award (and elephant trophy) commemorates this memory and philosophy of our founder. Tom’s passion for supporting customers, thinking big, and empowering people to reach new heights continues to be alive and well at DLT Solutions to this day. The DLT 20th Anniversary Art Piece.