Thomas Golonka

Thomas J. Golonka is a Vermont-based investment professional who serves as Chair of the Vermont Pension Investment Commission (VPIC), the body responsible for investing and managing the assets of Vermont's state employee, teacher, and municipal retirement systems. He has led VPIC as Chair through multiple annual reporting cycles, including the January 15, 2026 annual report, and presides over commission meetings covering investment performance, manager selection, and pension policy.

In his private-sector career, Golonka is a Managing Partner at SilverLake Wealth Management, an advisory firm with offices in Williston and Montpelier, Vermont, which he joined in 2005. Before SilverLake, he spent 12 years with Wachovia Securities' Private Client Group, focusing on portfolio management and advanced planning strategies for high-net-worth individuals and corporations. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) charter and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) practitioner. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Union College.

Golonka is active in Vermont civic and institutional governance beyond VPIC. He serves as a Trustee on the University of Vermont Health Network board and on the board of Central Vermont Medical Center, and he is a past City Councilor for Montpelier. He resides in Montpelier.

Important accuracy note: The stub data classified Golonka under "Angel Investors" with a "Seed Round" focus. Public sources consistently describe him as a wealth-management managing partner and public-pension fiduciary, not as an active startup/seed angel investor. No portfolio of personal early-stage startup investments could be verified. A founder treating him as a seed-stage angel should confirm that premise directly before relying on it.

• As VPIC Chair, his mandate is fiduciary institutional investing: generating risk-adjusted returns for Vermont's pension beneficiaries. VPIC reported a net investment return of 10.7% for fiscal year 2025 (above the median of U.S. public-pension peers), with long-term returns exceeding its ~7% actuarial assumed rate "with less risk than the median U.S. public pension fund peer."
• His personal advisory practice at SilverLake centers on portfolio management and advanced planning strategies for high-net-worth individuals and corporations — not venture or seed-stage startup investing.
• No publicly stated personal angel/seed investment thesis (target sectors, check sizes, "what makes him say yes") could be located; any such framing should be treated as unverified.