Bob Thornton is Director of Industrial Real Estate for Baker Realty Company, specializing in the selling and leasing of industrial property in Knoxville and throughout the East Tennessee Valley Region. Bob is an active member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) with thirty three years of experience in industrial development and industrial real estate brokerage. After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1979, Bob began his career with Caterpillar in industrial sales of material handling equipment. In 1980, Bob was employed as an industrial development consultant for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Bob served as a liaison to corporations, industry executives, state representatives and local communities in East Tennessee for the purpose of recruiting new industry to the area. In 1985 he joined Baker Realty Company as an Industrial Real Estate Broker and since then has been involved in hundreds of industrial sales and leasing transactions involving buildings and industrial acreage sites in and around Greater Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley Region.