Thomas J. Colbert

Thomas J. Colbert is a former senior media executive with thirty-six years of management and editorial experience in the national news, television entertainment, publishing, and motion-picture fields. He began his career in journalism research at the CBS flagship news station, KCBS, in 1980. From there he was recruited by Paramount Television in 1988 to be a story editor. In 1992, Colbert launched his own true-story research company, Industry R&D (IRD), to serve national networks, studios, and publishing houses. Nineteen of his breaking stories became movies for the big and small screen, with a like number of published books. He sold IRD in 2009 but still pursues the occasional book, movie, and series project through his firm, TJC Consulting, LLC.

In his off hours, Colbert has always found time to conduct talks and classes on media relations, disaster preparedness, and crisis management. That resulted in an invitation in 1983 to become a rotating instructor at the California Specialized Training Institute, a state Office of Emergency Services academy at Camp San Luis for public servants. Colbert provided his unique expertise in courses there for eighteen years to thousands of students wearing badges and uniforms. It is from these law enforcement alumni, and old news sources, that Colbert created his elite cold case team for the Cooper investigation.