ETO Spotlight: Tami Thomsen

ETO Spotlight: Tami Thomsen, photo courtesy of David Wilson

Welcome to ETO Spotlight:  a weekly post that will showcase how various individuals are escaping the ordinary in their lives.  For the first installment of this feature, the focus is centered on Tami Thomsen, label manager for Kirtland Records (Toadies, Bob Schneider, Bush), who has been a huge influence on me and was one of my first mentors in the music industry and life in general.

When I met her in June of 2008, she definitely had the look and style that I envisioned of someone who runs a rock music record label.  As we got to know each other, she told me about one of her passions outside of music that completely took me by surprise and further showed how she is constantly escaping the ordinary in her life.  In her own words, “I’m a walking contradiction in all kinds of ways.”

Tami grew up in Omaha Nebraska and developed a love for caring for and riding horses.  This passion stayed with her as she grew up, and she eventually attended a couple of colleges from Crete (Nebraska) to London, England before riding her way to a degree at a Midwest college she laughingly calls a “finishing school.”  Eventually after moving to Dallas, she signed up for polo lessons after seeing an ad, and became infatuated with the sport immediately.  Currently, she is on the Board of Directors for the Dallas Polo Club and competes in polo tournaments throughout each year.