Thomas Walek, founder and former president of financial services boutique Walek & Associates, which was acquired in 2013 by Peppercomm, has left that agency to form his own venture, Peaks Strategies.
The new firm focuses on capital markets, asset management, fintech and financial and professional services.
“I wanted to get back to my roots and into the specialist, boutique model of financial services and capital markets,” Walek told O’Dwyer’s. “It’s a market that demands experience, knowledge and focus, and that’s what I built my career on and that’s what I'm getting back to.”
Walek, who was assistant bureau chief at Commodity News Services before becoming principal managing director of Chicago-based PR shop WeiserWalek, founded Walek & Associates in 1998. That independent firm, which maintained offices in New York and Boulder, CO, specialized in financial services, capital markets and investor relations.
Walek sold W&A to New York-based independent agency Peppercomm in September 2013, adding his firm’s roster of hedge funds, private equity firms and other financial institutions to Peppercomm's suite of marketing and communications capabilities. Peppercomm in 2015 accounted for more than $6.7 million in financial PR and investor relations-related net fees, according to O’Dwyer’s rankings of PR firms.
In March, however, less than three years after the acquisition, Walek, who held the president title of the newly minted WalekPeppercomm unit, resigned from the agency.
Sources in late March told O’Dwyer’s that nearly the entire Walek staff that arrived in lieu of the 2013 acquisition had since left Peppercomm, with the exception of former Walek principal Armel Leslie, who remains at the agency in a senior director role.
Peppercomm co-founder and CEO Ed Moed confirmed with O’Dwyer’s that “some of the employees who joined Peppercomm with the Walek & Associates acquisition are no longer with the firm, due both to natural attrition and fit.”
Moed also said that the WalekPeppercomm name has now been phased out, “as part of an agency rebranding initiative.”
Walek told O’Dwyer’s that he left Peppercomm “on good terms” and referred to his departure from the agency as “amicable.”
Peaks Strategies, Walek’s newest outfit, recently opened offices on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
The new agency has already signed two clients: Hathersage, a macro investment management company; and global industry representative Alternative Investment Management Association.
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