Tom J. Ekman – Founder
"During my early search career, I witnessed an overwhelming need for the search profession to improve upon ethics, expertise and professionalism. I realized the best way to accomplish this was to start a firm with these foundations at its core. The result is a boutique search firm with National reach and a unique business model that focuses on our recruiters having extensive business backgrounds in the functional areas in which we conduct search. As Founder, I have extensive investor relations, communications and Wall Street experience so I know from real-life experience, what it takes to be successful in these professions."
Mr. Tom J. Ekman is the Founder of Ekman Associates, Inc., which is based in Orange County, California. The Firm specializes in conducting search assignments in Investor Relations, Information Technology, and Corporate Finance and Communications. Tom’s career has spanned from California to New York, for companies ranging in size from micro-cap to large-cap in a multitude of industries. He has over 20 years of experience in executive search, the financial services and securities industries, and investor/corporate communications.
Tom has conducted search assignments on behalf of companies such as Edison International, Cardinal Health, NCR, IMAX, AMGEN, KLA-Tencor, Dell, Payless, Wrigley, Ross Stores, CarMax, Avery Dennison, Vonage, Raytheon, Brinks, Nike, Health Net, and Cisco Systems, just to name a few.
Previously, Mr. Ekman served as Vice President/Executive Recruiter at a national recruiting firm. Prior to launching his career in executive search, he led senior-level search assignments on behalf of clients across all industry sectors and served as the Head of the Investor Relations Practice Group for Sitrick and Company, a leading national public relations, investor relations and crisis communications agency. Reporting to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, he spearheaded numerous strategic communications programs for clients ranging from $50 million in market capitalization to over $50 billion. His group was instrumental in working with clients experiencing significant crisis communications issues such as Chapter 11 restructuring activities, loss of Wall Street support, M&A activity, missed earnings estimates and executive level personnel issues.
Additionally, Mr. Ekman co-founded the agency Seiler-Martin-Ekman, a financial communications firm that specialized in crisis communications and investor relations. His area of expertise while at the firm included the development and implementation of strategic investor relations programs for small and mid-cap corporations, crisis communications, IPO and financial communications surrounding M&A transactions. Previously, he was a financial consultant with Morgan Stanley where he primarily focused on portfolio management for high net-worth individuals. Early in his career, Mr. Ekman also held management positions at Golden West Financial Corporation, the parent company of World Saving and Loan.
Tom has his Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Northridge and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of LaVerne. He has experience teaching college finance courses, including "Money and Banking" and "Advanced Investment Management." Mr. Ekman is a frequent speaker for various organizations supporting executive search, investor relations and corporate communications.
- Public Speaking Engagement Topics
- Business Issues Today
- Information Technology
- Motivational
- Persuasive
- Leadership
- Informative