A graduate in economics of the University of Applied Sciences, Worms/Germany, Thomas started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Schwarz Pharma AG, Germany, as a management trainee and moved into the position of Area Manager Far East, where he gained his first experience with Asian / Pacific markets. Attracted by the dynamic of the Asian pharmaceutical markets, Thomas joined Bayer AG in 1994 and was appointed Chief Representative Vietnam. He built up the Vietnamese business for Bayer Pharma from scratch, including a country-wide marketing & sales organization. After 5 years in Vietnam, Thomas returned to the Bayer headquarters in Leverkusen and joined the Strategic Planning Department as a business analyst and later established a new department focusing on Strategic Analysis and Functional Excellence. In 2002, Thomas returned to Asia as the General Manager of Bayer Healthcare Indonesia. Anticipating the phenomenal growth of branded generics across Asia, he joined Actavis as the President Director and Vice President Asia/Pacific in 2004, where he managed a staff of over 1,000 employees with manufacturing sites in Indonesia and China, and successfully entered several countries such as Australia, Singapore and Vietnam by establishing local country organizations.

Thomas left Actavis in 2014 to join Accord Healthcare, and three years later Glenmark Pharmaceuticals as Vice President for Asia. In 2019, he co-founded Augxano, a boutique consulting firm focusing on strategy consulting and product licensing for pharmaceutical companies based in Singapore.