Thomas Chema currently serves as president of Hiram College, a private liberal arts college in Northeastern Ohio, and as founder and chairman of Gateway Consulting Group, a professional-service consulting firm specializing in professional sports arena funding and development. He has been executive director of the Ohio Lottery Commission, chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, and executive director of the Gateway Economic Development Corporation, which managed development of Jacobs Field and Gund Arena and brought the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers into the heart of downtown Cleveland. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Notre Dame, he began his career with the law firm of Arter & Hadden.