Why Ethics Still Wins: Top Notch Finders Named 2026 BBB Torch Awards Finalist as Fernando Espinosa Marks 32 Years of Cross-Border Executive Search

A San Diego–Tijuana search firm’s ethics recognition arrives alongside a relaunched website and three decades of binational placement data.

As Featured In: USA Today — Top Notch Finders Named 2026 BBB Torch Awards for Ethics Finalist.

In an industry where speed often gets rewarded over scrutiny, Top Notch Finders, Inc. has just been recognized for the opposite discipline in cross-border executive search. The San Diego-based executive search firm, a Sanford Rose Associates Network franchise led by Founder and CEO Fernando Espinosa, has been named one of three finalists for the 2026 BBB Torch Awards for Ethics by the Better Business Bureau of the Pacific Southwest. An independent panel of community leaders evaluated finalists across four pillars — Character, Culture, Customers, and Community — with winners set to be announced September 9 at the La Jolla Marriott.

Why This Recognition Matters to Cross-Border Manufacturers

For CEOs, CHROs, and CPOs weighing which search partner to trust with a binational leadership mandate, ethics recognition is not a symbolic gesture — it is a proxy for how a firm behaves when no one is watching during a search. Espinosa has been candid about the cost of that discipline: “It has cost us more than I can count over 32 years,” he said of maintaining strict ethical standards throughout his career. That standard has translated into measurable results. Top Notch Finders has completed some of the industry’s most complex cross-border executive placements across life sciences, medical device, aerospace and defense, semiconductor, automotive, and electronics sectors, posting an 84 percent client retention rate against an industry benchmark of 80 percent.

Three Decades Built on the CaliBaja Corridor

This year’s finalist recognition lands alongside a personal milestone: Espinosa’s 32nd year in executive search and more than 1,300 completed executive placements. Headquartered in the San Diego–Tijuana CaliBaja binational corridor, Top Notch Finders operates as a Sanford Rose Associates franchise and holds membership in both The Pinnacle Society and the International Retained Search Association (IRSA) — organizations that collectively represent the top tier of executive search professionals in North America. Espinosa is the only Mexican national in Pinnacle Society history, a distinction that reinforces the firm’s positioning as the definitive binational search partner for manufacturers navigating leadership decisions across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Built on Five Core Values

Rather than treat ethics as a marketing checkbox, the firm anchors its operating model in five stated principles:

  • Integrity Above All — transparent search processes, even when a shortcut would close a deal faster
  • Excellence as a Standard — measured through retention data, not just placement counts
  • People First — candidates and clients evaluated as long-term partners, not transactions
  • Community and Service — active investment in the San Diego and Baja California business ecosystems
  • Bridge Building — cross-cultural fluency that makes binational searches actually work

For executive teams evaluating search partners for high-stakes manufacturing, aerospace, or life sciences roles, these values translate into practical differentiators that survive economic cycles — from the peso crisis through COVID-era reshoring waves.

A New Website to Match a Growing Mandate

Alongside this ethics recognition, Top Notch Finders has relaunched its website, giving current and prospective clients a refreshed resource to explore the firm’s search practice, sector expertise, and proprietary methodologies. Visitors can review case studies, sector-specific search capabilities, and the firm’s approach to evaluating executive readiness across disruption-prone industries.

What This Means for Your Next Executive Search

Organizations preparing to fill a critical leadership role in aerospace, semiconductors, life sciences, or automotive manufacturing across the U.S.-Mexico border face a narrowing pool of leaders who can operate across regulatory, cultural, and operational complexity simultaneously. A search partner’s ethical track record — not just its placement volume — is what determines whether that leader survives past the first year.

Explore the relaunched Top Notch Finders website to see how three decades of cross-border search discipline can de-risk your next leadership decision, and connect directly with Fernando Espinosa to discuss an upcoming search.