In March 2025, MAI engaged us to lead a confidential search for a Chief Marketing Officer. The role had to support rapid national expansion and serve as contingency for a pending partnership with Evoke Advisors, a combination that would stretch the firm across dozens of offices nationally. Marketing needed to speak to ultra high net worth families, family offices, sports and entertainment clients, institutions, and the mass affluent, all under SEC marketing rules. What did not exist was a unified brand leader, or the national team that leader would need underneath them.

We ran the search as a confidential retained engagement, with every semifinalist under NDA. Because the advisor client relationship and SEC compliant marketing practice cannot be learned on the job, we sourced from inside the industry: top RIAs, global asset managers, fintech platforms, private equity backed firms, and professional services. Forty eight candidates screened, eighteen advanced to longlist, ten presented to MAI and Evoke leadership, and the finalist delivered a 30-60-90 day plan live to stakeholder panels in Cleveland and Century City. We then did the part most search firms hand off: we stayed and built the team.

The CMO started in August 2025, weeks before the Evoke partnership was announced, and reports directly to the chief executive officer. Since then we have placed nine more people underneath: three segment marketing directors covering UHNW and family office, sports and entertainment, and wealth management, and six shared services roles spanning digital, communications, operations, new client acquisition, and compliance. The function was not inherited or reshuffled. It was hired, seat by seat, mid merger, for a firm now managing roughly $80 billion across 49 offices.

District Partners found me and set me up for massive success at MAI. I can’t say enough about their process as a firm and the care they take with each and every job search.

Kathleen Alcorn, Chief Marketing Officer, MAI Capital Management