Aaron Louch

Aaron David Louch is a seasoned financial services executive with over 27 years of management and controller experience. He co-founded E.K. Riley Investments, LLC in 2002 alongside Edward Riley (Chairman & CEO) and Brian Bertsch (President), with the mission of building a premier Pacific Northwest securities brokerage firm. Aaron served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, overseeing financial operations for the firm, which grew to manage over $2 billion in client assets across 18 locations in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Montana from its home office in the U.S. Bank Centre in downtown Seattle.

Prior to co-founding E.K. Riley, Aaron built his career in financial services operations. He served as Vice President and Manager of Tax Reporting and Stock Loan at Ragen MacKenzie, a well-known Pacific Northwest brokerage firm. Before that, he worked as Branch Operations Manager at Fixed Income Analytics, Inc. He holds a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Washington.

In August 2020, LPL Financial completed its acquisition of E.K. Riley Investments' assets in a deal structured as an asset purchase at an estimated multiple of approximately 6x post-synergy EBITDA. Approximately 90% of the firm's 35 independent financial advisors transitioned to the LPL platform, and over $2 billion in client assets were onboarded by the end of 2020. Aaron is registered with FINRA (CRD #2662983) and has a longstanding track record in broker-dealer compliance, financial reporting, and firm management.

Aaron Louch's investment activity appears to center on seed-stage opportunities, consistent with his classification as an angel investor. His deep background in financial services, brokerage operations, and firm-building in the Pacific Northwest suggests a focus on:

His experience co-founding, scaling, and ultimately exiting E.K. Riley Investments through a successful acquisition by LPL Financial gives him firsthand knowledge of building and selling a financial services business -- perspective that is valuable to seed-stage founders.

• Financial technology (fintech) and wealth management solutions, drawing on his decades of experience running a brokerage firm
• Pacific Northwest-based startups, given his long career and network in the Seattle area
• Early-stage companies where operational and financial management expertise can add strategic value beyond capital

No publicly documented angel or seed investments were identified through available sources. Aaron Louch's angel investing activity appears to be conducted privately, which is common among individual angel investors operating outside of formal angel groups or syndicates.