Thomas is a social scientist researching and teaching how individuals and organisations can lead social change, and adapt to a changing workplace, especially around wellbeing. he also consults for and advises policy makers, public and private organisations on those issues. Thomas' work has appeared regularly in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Review, Organization Science, Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Management Review, and been featured in the Economist and the Financial Times.

His research focuses on negative social evaluations (stigma, disapproval) and their antecedents (misconducts, scandals), and more recently on wellbeing and mental health in the context of work. He was made a Mid-Career Fellow of the British Academy in 2023. He was awarded the Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence 2022- 2023 - the highest accolade for teaching within the University of Cambridge. His work has appeared in a variety of scientific outlets in management, including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Annals, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management), ethics (Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Business & Society), and more broadly in social sciences and sociology (Human Relations, Work, Employment & Society, Journal of Vocational Behavior). His work on covert research received the Best Paper Award in Organizational Research Methods in 2017. He also published in practitioner outlets such as Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review, and has been regularly featured in media outlets such as the Financial Times, The Economist, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Telegraph, The Guardian, ITV, Die Zeit, Le Monde, France 24 and BBC Radio London, in addition to writing a column for Forbes.

His book ‘The Power of Being Divisive: Understanding Negative Social Evaluations’ (Stanford University Press) was the runner-up for the George Terry book award of the Academy of Management in 2021, an award recognising the book having made the most important contribution to the field of management. The Financial Times described the book as “a fascinating study of the social-media fuelled and fast-changing landscape of public opinion, and the possible ways in which that might be beneficial”.

Since 2020, Thomas is a trustee of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), a UK charity encouraging research in management and governing the Journal of Management Studies. He sits on the board of various journals including Organization Studies, Organization Science, the Journal of Management and the Journal of Management Studies. He is associate editor at Business & Society. From 2017 to 2019 he acted as co-editor in chief of M@n@gement – the first open access journal in the field of management, supported by the French National Science Foundation and the French Academy of Strategic Management. He previously sat on the editorial board of Work, Employment & Society, the journal of the British Sociological Association.

Thomas’ teaching received the 2023 Pilkington Prize, awarded to the best teachers at the University of Cambridge, and he was recognised by Poets & Quants (listed among the “40 under 40 best business school professors” in 2020) and Business Because (“Business school professors to look for in 2020”). He received the Cambridge Judge teaching award for his leadership teaching in the MBA in 2021. In parallel to his teaching in the Business School, he teaches social psychology and sociology in College, which earned him a honourable mention for the Supervisory Award attributed by the Cambridge Department of Sociology in 2020. Before joining Cambridge, he received a university-wide teaching award at King’s College London in 2018.

Thomas consults on a regular basis for a variety of clients around questions of diversity, uncertainty management, and wellbeing at work. Most recently, he was involved in questions of organisational culture in a major M&A operation in France. He has also given talks and run seminars in ministries and in the public sectors on the return to work and the hybrid office.

Prior to starting an academic career, Thomas worked in Debt Capital Markets on a trading floor in London, and for the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) in Paris.