Tom may have just been a temporary consultant CEO from the get-go. Maybe he was offered a specific amount of shares during his tenure to get the company up and running.

Now that it's up and running, you hire the facilities and accounting guys to step in and get the finances straight. The real estate guy will have a lot of connections for storage/warehousing. That's my assumption of where he fits in the puzzle.

As others have said, CEO's change all the time. Guys like Tom are better off being consultants late in their career instead of sticking with a company for a decade.