Thomas Farmer

Tom Farmer is an award winning total rewards leader based in Singapore, with a career spanning over 30 years. Tom has advised more than 150 organisations on rewards and mobility.

Currently, Tom is owner and Managing Director of Freelance Total Rewards Pte Ltd, founded in Singapore in 2013, with clients including Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific, CrimsonLogic, GroupM, NXP Semiconductor, Great Eastern Life Assurance, InterContinental Hotels Group, China Aviation Oil, Nera Telecommunications, Fullerton Healthcare, Armacell and others.

Tom has developed rewards programs for organizations in a wide range of industries including hospitality, high-tech/telecom, manufacturing, financial services, consumer goods, media, trading and others. He and his associates have completed pay system design including job evaluation, benchmarking, salary range structures, corporate incentives, performance management, sales compensation, executive compensation, global mobility (including policy development, localisation and local plus approaches) and total rewards philosophies.

Before starting his own firm, Tom was with Mercer as Principal and Asia Pacific Leader for Global Mobility, where his clients included Singapore Tourism Board, Sinopec, Singapore Ministry of Defense, AIA, MeadJohnson Nutrition, PTT Group, Kraft Foods, Chartis Insurance, Yum! International, Western Digital and Singapore Ministry of Defense.

Tom moved to Singapore in 2007 as Vice President, Compensation and Benefits, Asia Pacific for InterContinental Hotels Group. Previously he held the same role for IHG’s Americas region where his team of 11 earned multiple Employer Excellence Awards.

Prior to joining IHG, Tom was a senior consultant with Hewitt in Atlanta, where he led large compensation projects, including an assignment as interim Director of Compensation for Coca-Cola North America for eight months. Prior to Hewitt, Tom led global rewards for three multinational companies.

Tom has been quoted by the U.S. Senate, CNN, The Washington Post, Singapore’s HumanResources Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and many other leading national media on various reward topics, and has spoken at numerous conferences in the U.S., Europe and Asia. His blog (www.freelancetotalrewards.com) has been read by 15,000 people in more than 100 countries.

Tom has a Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) degree from Eastern Michigan University, He is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) through WorldatWork and is a certification faculty member. Freelance Total Rewards won silver for Best Executive and Incentive Compensation Consulting and bronze for Best Total Rewards Consulting from HumanResources’ Vendor of the Year awards in 2018.