Vice President, Merchandising & Retail Operations
Tom Jennings, the Astros Vice President of Merchandising and Retail Operations, is entering his 11th season with the organization.
In his role, Tom manages all aspects of the Astros Team Stores at Minute Maid Park. Over the course of his tenure with the club, Tom has led the Astros retail growth from the lowest-ranked in Major League Baseball to one of the top teams, which included winning the 2014 MLBPA Team Retailer Award. Tom’s team is also responsible for the merchandising of the three Astros owned Minor League affiliates: Triple-A Sugar Land, Double-A Corpus Christi and Low-A Fayetteville. The work on the Woodpeckers brand and subsequent retail assortment led to the team being awarded the 2019 Best New Logo/Branding Award by Baseball Digest.
His team oversees merchandising for the Astros Spring Training site in West Palm Beach, FL, where they are in charge of purchasing product for both the Astros and Washington Nationals, the latter of whom shares the same ballpark.
Tom began his retail career in the buying office of Montgomery Ward in Chicago. He has spent time with May Department Stores, Home Shopping Network and Kohl’s on their e-commerce side. He started his sports career by running the retail department for the Milwaukee Brewers with their concessionaire, Sportservice, where he helped the team achieve the MLB Retailer of the Year award in 2008.
Born in Hinsdale, Il, Tom has lived in Pittsburgh (twice), Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Tampa, Milwaukee, Chicago (twice) and Gary, IN, where he went to high school and subsequently graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.
Tom has two children, son Jack and daughter Quinn.