Thomas Michael Bengtson created The GEO Principle when he was thinking about the importance of integrating faith-filled living with the obligations of the work world. Tom is a writer, speaker and entrepreneur living in Minneapolis with his wife Susan and their four children.  

Tom is president of NFR Communications, a publishing company specializing in trade and custom publications. The company is best known for NorthWestern Financial Review, a trade journal covering the banking industry in the Upper Midwest. The company also produces Family Foundations, the membership magazine of the Couple to Couple League, an international marriage-building organization based in Cincinnati. NFR Communications and its staff are the recipients of several professional awards for design and editorial excellence. 

Mr. Bengtson combined his experience with family, church and business to write The GEO Principle, a guide for people interested in the integration of faith and work. Tom draws on three sources: interviews he conducted with business leaders over more than two decades as a financial journalist, advice published in some of the leading business books of our time, and results of informal surveys conducted among faith-filled, mid-career members of the workforce.

In addition to writing The GEO Principle: God in Every Occupation means purpose for every job…even yours! Tom is author of a memoir called Emerging Son. Published in 2004, the book addresses themes common to young men growing into middle age: finding a career, getting married, building a family, sorting out a relationship with your father, and growing to know God.  

Tom is chairman of the board of trustees for The Chesterton Academy, an independent high school in the St. Louis Park, Minn. Tom and colleague Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society, led a group of parents to organize the school that opened in September of 2008. 

Tom is a 2008 recipient of a “Leading with Faith” award presented by the Catholic Spirit, the newspaper for the archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. In addition, Tom is a 2005 Fellow to the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Georgetown University. In 1989, he was the recipient of a Hughes journalism scholarship to the Iowa School of Banking at the University of Iowa. 

Prior to starting NFR Communications in 1992 with business partner Robert Cronin, Tom had worked as a reporter and editor at NorthWestern Financial Review and its predecessor magazine, Commercial West. For two years, Tom served as Director of Communications for the Minnesota Bankers Association; he also worked for two years in corporate communications at Honeywell. Tom also worked for daily newspapers – the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake, N.Y. in 1983-84; and the Binghamton (N.Y.) Press Sun-Journal in 1984-85. 

A 1983 graduate of the University of Minnesota, Tom studied English and French to obtain a liberal arts degree from the Twin Cities campus. Tom’s other interests include sailing and aviation.


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