Des Moines Metropolitan Area
Tom Cox is the Managing Partner of Iowa Career Connection (ICC), a boutique executive search firm based in West Des Moines. Our firm focuses on sourcing accounting, finance, HR, and multi-discipline senior executive leadership. We recruit proven performers to take on vital and transformative roles for our client employers. Our clients range from publicly traded companies to family-owned businesses, across all industries, including manufacturing, financial services, and commodities. ICC has extensive experience handling confidential and sensitive placements. With each unique project, we seek to serve our clients and our candidates with discretion, accuracy, and candor. Tom brings 17 years of experience as a senior executive within a publicly-traded environment to his present role helping firms find and hire transformational talent. Tom most recently served as the Vice President of Digital Operations for the Meredith Local Media Group (NYSE: MDP). At Meredith, Tom built high-functioning teams of sales, marketing, and content professionals across the United States. Tom earned a master’s degree from Drake University in Des Moines and received his undergraduate degree from Boston University. Civic involvement includes board seats at Variety, the Children’s Charity, and the Mid-Iowa Council, BSA, as VP of Talent Management. Tom is also the Treasurer of the West Des Moines Community Foundation, a citizen-led foundation supporting the arts, human services, and quality of life initiatives. Tom is an officer at the historic Des Moines Scottish Rite Consistory. He represents Central Iowa on the board of the Iowa Scottish Rite Masonic Foundation, which dispenses $250K each year in support of childhood speech therapy programs at Iowa clinics and colleges. Tom and his family reside in West Des Moines (when the young adults are not off at college or law school). Tom spent his earliest years as a TV newscaster. Chances are excellent that you never actually saw him on-air, but you think he looks familiar.
Iowa Career Connection is a boutique search firm connecting exceptional candidates with management and professional career opportunities in Iowa and the Upper Midwest. We provide contingent, retained, and contract placement. Our team focuses on accounting, finance, human resources, and high-level executive professionals. Our clients are both publicly traded and privately held. They include local, regional, national, and multinational firms including members of the Fortune 500. We serve employers across many segments of the economy, including manufacturing, energy, commercial real estate (CRE), agribusiness, insurance, and public accounting. ICC enjoys career-long connections with many of our candidates, They are experienced professionals with advanced certifications relevant to their field, such as the CPA, or SPHR designation. While they often hold focused undergraduate degrees, many have earned advanced degrees, such as the MBA. Many of our accounting candidates have major public accounting credentials and early-career industry experience. They are all motivated to advance their careers with an employer where they can drive measurable growth. At the upper end of the career spectrum, we undertake consultative searches with discretion and accuracy for clients looking for C-level talent (CMO, CIO, CTO, COO, CAO, CEO, etc.). Iowa Career Connection has international reach through our membership in NPAWorldwide, a global member-owned cooperative recruitment network with over 240 trading partners. We tap this resource to place specialist candidates in focused roles across the US and internationally, including any language or cultural environment. Top talent. Absolute integrity. Iowa Career Connection.
• Oversaw the content management system (CMS) for web and mobile apps in 14 TV markets. • Hired a seven-member in-house digital ad trafficking team in less than six months. • Supervised SEO, Domain Authority and digital metrics monitoring for all digital properties. • Oversaw a 91% increase in overall page view traffic during this two year period. • Established 14 LLCs to manage ownership of an extensive Apple and Android app portfolio. • Represented Meredith Corporation on the board of Pearl TV. • Selected new CMS provider and negotiated a contract that reduced costs by over 50%. • Established social media content policies and procedures.
• Established a digital-only sales management structure across all business units. • Oversaw 17% digital revenue growth against 8% broadcast growth exiting recession. • Committee member for the corporate re-branding project to introduce new corporate logo. • Grew digital revenues 29X, from $250K to $7.3MM in three years from 2005 through 2007. • Established online advertising as an important contributor to the Group's top-line growth. • Negotiated the transition to a new digital content management system (CMS) provider. • Launched the first news and weather iPhone apps for a large domestic TV Group. • Implemented the digital-first, “Digital Content Manager” newsroom management structure.
• Developed branded "Better Homes and Gardens" sales marketing programs generating over $400 million in media placements over the fifteen-year life of the program. • Implemented aggressive sales marketing program in 2002 resulting in an unprecedented run of 16 consecutive quarters of sales growth, a "worst-to-first" revenue growth turn-around story for the Broadcasting Group among its publicly traded TV peers. • Established the "Broadcast Solutions" division as a central integrated marketing solutions provider for all station sales and marketing teams.
• Graduate Assistant at the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. • Oversaw Council communications on Iowa open meetings laws.
General assignment reporter and weather-caster for channel 5 (WOI-TV) in Des Moines.
• Weekend anchor and general assignment reporter at KOTA in Rapid City, SD. • Bureau chief, ranging over the northeast quarter of Wyoming, including Sheridan and Gillette.