Stuart D. Tom, P.E., CBO, FIAE
Superintendent of Building and Fire
Pasadena, California
Stuart Tom is an executive officer of JAS Pacific, Inc., a professional consulting firm that has provided municipal services to local cities and counties for the past 30 years. Prior to his appointment as President of the firm in 2017, he retired as the Fire Marshal for the City of Glendale, California and served as Building Official for 16 years. Tom currently serves in an influential capacity on several state-wide committees including the CALBO/CalChiefs Building and Fire Advisory Committee.
At the local level, Tom served two years as the Co-Chair of the So-Cal Fire Prevention Officer’s Fire Code Committee; he is a Past-President of the Los Angeles Basin Chapter of ICC where he also served as the Chair of the Fire and Life Safety Committee; prior to the state-wide transition to the International Building Code, Tom was appointed to the Los Angeles Uniform Code Program Steering Committee, for which he received the Los Angeles County Productivity Award; as Co-Chair of the State Fire Marshal’s Wildfire Ignition ad-hoc committee, he provided assistance in a thorough revision of California’s wildland urban-interface construction standards on a civic level, Tom is past Chair of the City of Calabasas Building Appeals Board, and he is also a past member of the City of Santa Monica Building and Fire Safety Commission.
Tom was selected as the state’s Building Official of the Year by the California Building Officials Association and was again selected as Building Official of the Year by the California Fire Chiefs Association/Fire Prevention Officers. He is the first of only two individuals to receive such honor by both organizations. As a recognized expert in various fields of structural design and life-safety systems, he is the recipient of several other awards, including the CALBO President’s Award, and he was inducted as a Fellow into the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering in February 2001. In 2019, the Southern California Fire Prevention Officials presented Tom with the William E. Fox Award, one of the organization’s highest honors.
Tom has taught numerous courses throughout California; he is the author of a self-study training program that assisted in California’s transition to the IBC; and he is a recognized expert in various aspects of the Building Code, Residential Code and Fire Code. He has co-authored several provisions in the International Building Code as well as the California Building Code, California Residential Code and California Fire Code.
