Founder Profile
Tom Monaghan
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Tom Monaghan?
Tom Monaghan is a founder of Domino's Pizza, Inc., which was founded in 1960 with James Monaghan.
- Company founded
- Domino's Pizza, Inc.
- Founded
- 1960
- Co-founders
- James Monaghan
Background
Tom Monaghan grew up partly in a Catholic orphanage in Michigan and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before buying his first pizza store with his brother in 1960.
Founding Story
Tom Monaghan co-founded Domino's in 1960 when he and his brother James bought DomiNick's in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with about $900 in borrowed money. After James traded his half of the business for the shop's Volkswagen Beetle in 1961, Tom became sole owner and renamed the chain Domino's Pizza in 1965. He built the company around fast delivery and franchising, introduced the 30-minute delivery promise, and expanded abroad from 1983. In 1998 he sold a roughly 93% stake to Bain Capital in a deal widely reported at about $1 billion, then focused on Catholic philanthropy, including founding Ave Maria University.
Tom Monaghan was born in 1937 in Ann Arbor.