Ken Ennis, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner

One of the founding partners of ESE, Ken Ennis has had a distinguished 20-year career in the financial services industry in senior executive roles focused on product development and general management.  He has an extensive background in leading major business units in the development of web based services that combine data, research and investment services for clients in the wealth management marketplace.

From 2007 through mid-2008, Ennis executed several senior level consulting assignments involving the creation of new services for the ultra-high net worth and retirement income arenas.  From 1997 to 2006, Ennis served as Managing Director in the Investment Services division of Standard & Poor’s.  From conception to roll-out, he led the team that created and operated Portfolio Advisor, the first turnkey asset management platform in the firm’s history.  Ennis’s 40-person team gathered $1 billion in assets through the first 24 months after launch.  Previously, Ennis was General Manager of the $100 million Retail Brokerage Division, successfully leading 300 staff members across all major business functions.   He also created a new division and led S&P’s efforts in the retirement services advice arena.  Ennis began his career at S&P by transforming a set of primarily print-based financial products into an array of dynamic digital distribution services, creating a series of popular web sites and data feeds serving the wealth management, reference, and consulting marketplaces.

From 1990 to 1997, Ennis held senior product management and marketing roles at Reuters America Inc.  He led the team which created a group of targeted domestic services for the U.S., Canada and Latin America, the first of their kind in the firm’s history.  These services covered a range of asset classes, including fixed income, commodities, foreign exchange, derivatives and equities.  Ennis began his career at Merrill Lynch as part of the mortgage-backed securities trading division, where he held various roles, including client liaison for new issues of asset-backed and collateralized mortgage-backed securities deals, coordinating the investment banking, trading, and back-office divisions.

Ken holds an MBA in Finance from Fordham University, and a B.A. from Lafayette College in Economics and Business.


Burt Shulman, Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Partner

Before becoming one of the three founding partners of ESE, Burt Shulman’s 25-year career was marked by a sustained record of innovation in marketing and product development.  He has held senior roles in marketing, branding, and product development, working comfortably in both digital and traditional media.  The bulk of his time has been focused in the financial services sector, but his varied background includes direct-to-consumer internet music marketing, as well as a stint as head of product management in the education sector.  Shulman’s skills span strategic and tactical marketing, general management, hands-on creative production, and product development.

From October, 2007 through April, 2008 he worked for Scholastic Education as Vice President of Product Marketing and Management.  From early 2002 until September, 2007 he served as Marketing Vice President for key divisions of Standard & Poor’s Investment Services unit, ending as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and New Products. For three of his nearly 6 years with S&P, Shulman managed a team of 60, concurrently serving as overall VP of Marketing for his division, and general manager and product chief for Standard & Poor’s Financial Communications, a standalone P&L which created marketing strategies, web content, digital products, marketing collateral, investor newsletters, and branding programs for financial services firms and 401k plan sponsors.

In April 2000, Shulman joined several senior Reuters colleagues in a pioneering venture in user-generated content, serving for nearly two years as Vice President of Marketing, Branding, and Research for GetMusic / RollingStone.com, a web division of Vivendi Universal Music.  For the prior 13 years, Shulman worked for Reuters, ending as Vice President of Marketing Communications for the Americas.  He led the launch of Reuters Plus, which pioneered in integrating direct internet access with real-time market data and news; directed the firm’s first major advertising efforts; and conceived and spearheaded the $23 million video wall currently installed on the Thomson Reuters building at 3 Times Square in New York City, which continues to promote the firm’s brand while earning significant advertising revenue.

Shulman is also a writer, having published Safe House, a collection of stories, along with various pieces of journalism.  An experienced video producer, graphic designer, and web developer, he has a passionate interest in the application of emerging digital technologies to marketing and sales in the financial services, digital information and educational technology sectors.  His work has won a number of awards.