Erik Bunaes, Principal
Endorphin Advisors
Erik, an experienced business executive and independent consultant, is an active speaker, trainer, coach and consultant. With more than two decades of experience in financial services and management consulting, he provides leadership coaching, strategy and organizational development consulting services. He launched Endorphin Advisors in 2005 and regularly leads workshops on leadership and marketing topics under the “Good Players Play Hurt” business workshop series.
Erik began his career in financial services at Marsh & McLennan, as a reinsurance intermediary in their New York, London and Philadelphia offices. After successfully completing a comprehensive management training program, Erik was assigned to manage more than 25 client relationships in a wide-ranging territory including the northeast, the southeast and the mid-west regions of the U.S.
Five years after graduating college, he returned to school to pursue a masters degree. While in graduate school, Erik spearheaded several marketing projects at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. These included creating and executing a direct mail campaign targeting high net worth clients and developing and fielding a marketing research survey to measure client satisfaction. After graduating with an M.B.A., Erik moved to Silicon Valley to experience first-hand the dot-com boom (and bust). At InsWeb.com, he directed a marketing program for a cutting-edge online marketplace where insurance agents advertised and sold their products. In this capacity, Erik created more than 60 new corporate client relationships in less than six months.
Subsequently, Erik joined the consulting and risk management firm, Towers Perrin, in San Francisco. He ultimately served a roster of clients generating more than $2 million in annual revenue and put together several notable deals during his seven year tenure. These included: building an online insurance marketplace to serve members of a professional services community; securing commitment of multiple carriers to participate in a ground-breaking, point-of-sale auto insurance service; moving a $35 million auto warranty program to a new carrier; and helping launch more than seven different agent-driven insurance programs which generated $45+ million annually. He traveled extensively throughout the western US developing new business and managing existing client relationships.
From June 2007 to July 2009, Erik was Co-Founder and President of Your Marketing Lab Inc., a resource of marketing expertise and services for business owners and entrepreneurs. This unique, online resource enables business owners and entrepreneurs to develop effective marketing capabilities and tools, while also providing a platform for input, feedback and collaboration among YML members and partners. YML conducts in person, live and pre-recorded marketing education, mastermind groups and offers a wide range of consulting services via a team of marketing service provider partners.
Erik has a B.A. in English from St. Lawrence University and an M.B.A. from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has studied French at the University of Grenoble (France), coaching skills at the Coaches Training Institute (San Rafael, CA), and negotiation skills at the American Management Association (San Francisco, CA). He has worked abroad in both London and Paris.
Erik is an active member of the San Rafael (CA) Chamber of Commerce, the American Marketing Association and the California Association of Business Brokers.
Complementing his business career, Erik is a dedicated cyclist and an accomplished, veteran alpine ski racer. Erik’s continuing love of alpine ski racing spans more than 25 years, racing on teams in Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Colorado and California. One of Erik’s personal goals is to again coach alpine ski racing.
Erik, along with his wife, two young children and his yellow lab, live in Marin County, California.