Tommy Spaulding: up with people CEO helped revive the nonprofit's global brand.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: EXECUTIVE edge - Up with People

Tommy Spaulding still bristles when he thinks about his high school counselor in Suffren, N.Y., who advised him to forget about college and head to trade school.

The son of two school teachers, Spaulding was dyslexic, in the bottom 5 percent of his class and attended summer school each year--yet he would go on to graduate from East Carolina University and earn master's degrees in business and nonprofit management.

While others were paying off their student loans, Spaulding had $25,000 in the bank, having operated a string of small businesses, including a car wash and T-shirt business while working his way through college.

"When you grow up with a humble background, you become very entrepreneurial if you want extra spending money," said Spaulding, 38, who today is president and CEO of Denver-based Up with People.

Yes--the very same Up with People mocked by David Letterman, "The Simpsons" and "South Park" and parodied as being "Hooray for Everything."

"I just laugh; you can't take that so seriously," said Spaulding, who credits his stint in 1987 as a cast member of Up with People for giving him the confidence to pursue his dream to go to college.

"My whole life everyone told me how dumb I was so I became an overachiever. I came from a very middle class family, and I thought I needed a passport to go to New Jersey," Spaulding said. "But through Up with People I've traveled to over 75 countries on four continents. Schools don't always play to your strengths, your entrepreneurial side, but traveling the world with Up with People and doing volunteer work--that was the tipping point of my life."

Up with People closed in 2000 on the brink of bankruptcy and reopened in 2003 with greater focus on its volunteerism around the globe.

"As an alumnus, I was very angry with Up with People...