Tom Strickler, Trailblazer of Education and Entertainment, Joins SCI-Arc Board

SCI-Arc is pleased to announce that Tom Strickler has been appointed to its Board of Trustees.

Tom Strickler is cofounder of Endeavor, the largest talent and literary agency in the world. While at Endeavor (1995 – 2009), Strickler headed up the motion picture department and served on the Endeavor management committee, during which time the firm also grew from 4 to 800 employees, earning over 300 million dollars annually in revenue. Prior to founding Endeavor, Strickler was an agent at top, internationally recognized firms CAA, InterTalent, and ICM.

In 2011, upon his retirement from Endeavor, Strickler founded Extera Public Schools in East Los Angeles to address the detrimental effects on disadvantaged students in an area of the city burdened by poverty and a failing educational system. Currently the schools serve 1000 students in Boyle Heights, and are among the highest performing elementary schools in East LA.

In 1996, Strickler—along with Kris and Doug Tompkins (founder of North Face and Esprit)—purchased a 190,000-acre ranch in the Chacabuco Valley located in the Aysen region of Chile. In 2019, the land—now 752,000 acres—was donated to the people of Chile, subsequently becoming Patagonia National Park.

Strickler currently serves on the board of Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF), the largest charter school operator dedicated to serving African American students in California, as well as that of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

"We are delighted that Tom Strickler has agreed to join the SCI-Arc Board of Trustees,” says SCI-Arc Director Hernán Díaz Alonso. “Tom has distinguished himself as a trailblazer in the world of entertainment as well as an educational innovator—we look forward to benefiting from his expertise and pioneering spirit here at SCI-Arc."

Strickler himself says of his appointment, “I'm excited to join the SCI-Arc family—a school overflowing with talent and promise from all over the globe."