Donna Ecton is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of EEI Inc., a management consulting practice launched in 1998. EEI provides private equity and sub debt firms with due diligence and market/operational assessments of companies being considered for acquisition, as well as turns around under-performing companies, and serves as a mentor/coach for CEOs.
Prior to leading EEI, Donna served on the board of directors of PetSmart and became its chief operating officer. She also served as CEO of Business Mail Express, Inc.; Van Houten North America and Andes Candies, Inc.; as well as a corporate officer of Nutri/System, Inc. and Campbell Soup Company; and ran Citibank, N.A.’s Upper Manhattan middle-market lending business and Midtown Manhattan banks.
Donna has served as a member or chair of numerous boards (including privately held, non-profit and Christian) and has chaired audit, compensation, finance and executive committees. She serves (or has served) on the boards of Mellon Bank Corporation, H&R Block, Inc., and eight other corporations.
Donna earned her MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. She was elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers and awarded the Frederick Sheldon Fund Fellowship by Harvard University, which enabled her to travel around the world for an academic year studying pollution control efforts in 40 countries.
Donna received her BA in economics from Wellesley College, graduating as a Durant Scholar. She was awarded the Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award.
Donna has been a passionate participant in Bible Study Fellowship for several years and in continuing education at the Phoenix Seminary where she was blessed to study under Dr. Wayne Grudem. She felt God leading her and her husband to move to Franklin, TN, near where Educational Media Foundation is building its new headquarters. Donna and her husband have two sons and a granddaughter, and through the grace of God, have recently added two more children and five grandchildren to their extended family.
