DALLAS, TX, June 02, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Robert Lawrence Pearson with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Pearson celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Pearson is renowned as the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Pearson Partners International, a global full-service executive search firm that helps clients build world-class management teams. Securing top talent for organizations since 2002, from chief executive officers and chief financial officers to board members and senior executives, Pearson Partners has worked with clients including Fortune 1000 companies, private equity firms and emerging businesses. Based in Dallas, with offices across the country, Mr. Pearson's firm has grown significantly over the years, and has been recognized as one of Forbes' America's Best Executive Search Firms and as a Hunt Scanlon Top 40 Executive Search Firm in The Americas. An independent member of IIC Partners Executive Search Worldwide since 2015, Pearson Partners gives clients access to a global talent pool with local expertise across nearly 50 offices in over 30 countries.
Mr. Pearson spent his early career at McKinsey & Company as a senior engagement manager in its Chicago office, where he developed his lifelong passion for management consulting, then with Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida as vice president of corporate finance. He then founded and was CEO of Pearson Inc., a midsized manufacturing firm in Wisconsin. He joined the executive search industry in 1982 as an executive director at Russell Reynolds Associates in Dallas. A legend in the search industry, Mr. Reynolds was a tremendous influence on Mr. Pearson and a fast friend. Mr. Pearson later worked for global executive search firm LAI Worldwide. Serving first as Southwest managing partner and later elected chairman and chief executive officer, he played an instrumental role in the firm's successful initial public offering (the first executive search firm to go public). LAI was noted as the world's third-largest and fastest-growing executive search firm at that time. Following several sizeable acquisitions and a large secondary public offering, he sold the company to TMP Worldwide (later known as Monster Worldwide).
In 2013, he was honored by the Association of Executive Search & Leadership Consultants with the AESC Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing outstanding contributions to the growth and evolution of the executive search consulting industry. A celebrated Marquis listee, Mr. Pearson has been featured in approximately 45 editions of Who's Who in Finance and Business, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the South and Southwest and Who's Who in the World.
Mr. Pearson has dedicated his time and expertise to serving on several corporate boards, most recently as the chairman of the compensation committee for Pentagon Technologies, a Silicon Valley-area semiconductor manufacturing equipment and cleanroom technology company. He is a former board member of LAI Worldwide and Tatum CFO and a former advisory board member of Baird Capital Partners.
Well known in his community for his leadership and service, Mr. Pearson has been involved with several charitable organizations, including serving on the Corporate Council fundraising committee of the Dallas Museum of Art and the board of directors of the YMCA of Dallas. Mr. Pearson is a partner and sponsor of the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas and served on the board of directors of the Dallas Museum of Natural History (predecessor to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science), where he was a member of its fundraising Stones and Bones Club and a member of the organizing committee that brought the historic Ramses exhibit to Dallas.
Aligned with several professional organizations, Mr. Pearson is a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum in Dallas, the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and several honor societies and avocational organizations. He has been active as a member and past president of the MIT Club of Dallas and was a member of and fundraiser for the 2011 Dallas Mayor's Inaugural Campaign.
Mr. Pearson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude, at Michigan State University in 1961, where he was accepted into the national engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi as well as Blue Key Honor Society and Phi Beta Kappa. He served on the Inter-Fraternity Council and was elected chapter president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. He subsequently earned a Master of Science degree in industrial management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1963. Mr. Pearson was awarded a NASA fellowship to complete his academic efforts at MIT and was a member of the MIT Instrumentation Lab (now Draper) that designed the navigation, control and guidance systems for the Apollo program spacecraft and lunar modules. He was also a member the a cappella group The MIT Logarhythms. He believes his greatest achievement at MIT was meeting his future wife, Norma Dale, at Brandeis University.
Mr. Pearson and his wife, Norma, are avid world travelers and have enjoyed learning the cultures of many of the world's countries on six continents. In his spare time, he has enjoyed playing golf, deep sea fishing, running (he completed four New York Marathons) and rooting for his Michigan State Spartans. He is joined at Pearson Partners by his son, Keith Pearson, co-founder and chief executive officer, and his daughter, Jill Pearson, principal and head of marketing and IT, as well as a team of stellar executive search professionals. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson have been blessed with five grandchildren who live in Dallas and Fort Lauderdale.
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