Raleigh, N.C., April 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Expertise without visibility is expertise wasted. For CEOs and senior leaders, the cost is concrete—lost board seats, missed speaking platforms, slower deal cycles, and diminished exits.
ExecBrand Authority (EBA) was built to solve this challenge. The technology-enabled brand advisory firm, founded by multi-exit CEO and EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner Donald Thompson, gives ambitious leaders a structured system for building, protecting, and measuring executive credibility—anchored by the proprietary EBA Index, which scores influence across 10 leadership dimensions.
“Every CEO I know has expertise worth a hundred times what the market gives them credit for. But the executives who get the best opportunities—the board seats, the keynotes, the premium deals—aren’t always the most qualified. They are the most visible and trusted. That gap is what EBA closes,” said Donald Thompson, Board Chair, ExecBrand Authority.
EBA was incubated out of Walk West, a nationally recognized digital agency headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., marking the second successful company to emerge from the agency. The launch comes on the heels of Thompson’s prior venture, The Diversity Movement, which he founded in 2019 and was acquired by Workplace Options in 2023. Thompson serves as Board Chair and Lead Investor at ExecBrand Authority.
Thompson used EBA’s methodology through his own career, investing heavily in his personal brand over the past several years—authoring multiple books, recording 170+ podcast episodes, and publishing more than 200 articles. The results are measurable: his brand enters rooms before he does, accelerating the trust process and shortening sales cycles across his business portfolio. This proof of concept has become the foundation for EBA.
Thompson has assembled strategists who have each built their own platforms using the same frameworks. Chief Creative Officer Bob Batchelor, PhD, brings 35+ published books and three Independent Publisher Award wins. Senior Advisor Jackie Ferguson is an award-winning founder and product creator and authored The Inclusive Language Handbook, which has sold in 15 countries.
Ferguson also developed EBA’s core intellectual property, including the EBA Index, which scores executive visibility, credibility, and influence across ten dimensions of modern leadership.
“Most executives underestimate what they know,” said Bob Batchelor, Chief Creative Officer at ExecBrand Authority. “Our job is to take two decades of hard-won experience and turn it into a body of work that opens doors before they walk through them.”
The firm works with CEOs, founders, consultants, creative leaders, and senior executives seeking to convert expertise into market authority. Services range from the foundational Executive Brand Accelerator to monthly authority programs and flagship assets including books, podcast series, and integrated media campaigns.
Research underscores the urgency of EBA’s mission. According to Weber Shandwick, CEO reputation accounts for 44 percent of a company’s overall reputation. LinkedIn and Edelman data show that 55 percent of decision-makers have increased business with a company because of its thought leadership.
About ExecBrand Authority
ExecBrand Authority (EBA) is a technology-enabled brand advisory firm that converts executive expertise into market authority. In the trust economy, a leader’s brand is inseparable from organizational value, yet most executives have no system for building or measuring it. EBA was founded by EY Entrepreneur of the Year winner Donald Thompson, bestselling author Jackie Ferguson, and award-winning author Bob Batchelor, PhD—practitioners who built their own platforms using the frameworks they now deploy for clients through EBA’s proprietary EBA Index. For more information, visit execbrandauthority.com.
Contact Info
Bob Batchelor
bob@execbrandauthority.com
+1 850-273-2393
