Local Residents: Meet Paul Toomey

You're probably quite familiar with the quaint restaurants and businesses in Historic Old Downtown Palm Harbor. But, you may not know that a company that plays a big role in the U.S. job market is headquartered in a historic building in Old Downtown Palm Harbor.

Paul Toomey started in a one bedroom apartment in St. Petersburg back in 1993. One year later, he moved to Palm Harbor where he operated his business out of a house in Crystal Beach. Toomey eventually moved Geographic Solutions to its present location on Omaha Circle. Over the years, Toomey used his skills in computer mapping and programming to create a company that supplies job-seeking software used by government agencies. 19 years after he started his company, Geographic Solutions software is now available to more than 75 percent of the job seekers and employers in the U.S., including here in Florida.

"We're not very well known ourselves, but everybody knows Employ Florida," said Toomey.

Employ Florida is a website that lists jobs available in Florida. The site aggregates job listings from more than 12,000 sites. It is used by job seekers and employers who are looking for workers. Staff at government employment offices also use the software system to help with case management for unemployed citizens. 

Geographic Solutions employs more than 140 workers at six locations in Palm Harbor and one satellite location in Salinas, Ca. The company is building a new facility in Historic Old Downtown Palm Harbor where computer programmers and other technical staff will be able to work together, instead of working at separate locations.

"It's a great place to work, the downtown area has nice restaurants and shops," said Toomey.

The building, which is scheduled to be completed in about a year, was designed to complement the architectural style of the nearby historic White Chapel.

In addition to the new building, the company plans to launch a new software system that will help people who file for unemployment. The software will list opportunities in a job seeker's field and it will also offer a list of other jobs and occupations that might be a good fit for the job seeker, especially one who has been unemployed for a long period of time.

"The idea behind the system is it will show them other opportunities they may never have thought of," he said.

Toomey says what he likes most about his job is walking into a career center and seeing people using the system and talking to people who've found a job using the software. He says Geographic Solutions will continue to expand and develop new products.

"The wolf is always at the door. It's a very competitive area. You really, unfortunately don't have the time to sit back and go look and where we've come from. You constantly have to compete."

Here are a few fun questions we also asked Paul Toomey-

1) What was your first car?

1977 Pontiac Firebird 400

2) What is your all-time favorite book?

Good to Great – Jim Collins 

3) If you have a smartphone (Iphone, Blackberry, etc), what is your favorite app?

iPhone – iTunes 

4) What was your first ever job and what was the biggest thing you learned from it?

Computer Mapping Specialist – How to be a professional programmer.

5) What are you most grateful for?

My wife and 2 kids.

6) What is one thing that most people don't know about you?

I am cycling from London to Paris in July to raise money for the Treasures of Africa orphanage in Tanzania. Read more about the trip here.