Distributor Corporate Imaging Concepts (PPAI 221047) has named Bob Herzog as its new CEO, as first announced Wednesday in a PPB Newslink Breaking News alert. Current CEO and company founder Brian Abrams is stepping down from the role but will remain highly involved in the Northbrook, Illinois, company as executive chairman.
Herzog brings considerable industry management experience to the position. He has served as CEO of supplier Bullet and most recently as COO of supplier Polyconcept North America. He also has more than 17 years of supply-chain management experience with FedEx and UPS.
“He was able to check off every box for the candidate we were seeking,” says Abrams, who founded the company in 1996 and launched a search to fill the CEO position late last year following the closure of a private equity deal. Part of that agreement was that Abrams wanted to transition out as CEO when he was ready. “About six months ago, I said it was time and we started our search,” he says.
Herzog will run the company day to day, freeing Abrams to look for and capitalize on acquisition opportunities and develop the company’s strategic vision to lead supply-chain and tech innovation in the marketplace. He also looks forward to serving on private equity boards.
On the distributor side for the first time in his career, Herzog spent his first day on the job—Monday—in a client meeting and has been getting to know the employees and the business. His plans over the next few months will be focused on formalizing communications and account management. “Brian has built a wonderful company with a great culture and it’s grown rapidly over the past five or six years,” says Herzog. “When you are a smaller organization, word of mouth is good enough to keep everybody informed. Now, we’re much bigger, with employees in other states, so we need to think about ‘formalizing’ how we communicate and how we do things.” He says he’ll also be looking at how the sales team is structured, how leads get into the pipeline and how they are handled from there.
Now with private equity backing and Herzog’s experience, Abrams is looking to continue the company’s robust growth, including plans for several acquisitions—the first expected by summer.
In each of the past six years CIC has experienced more than 20-percent growth year over year and has been profitable every year since it was founded, says Abrams.
He explains the company business model is based on a proprietary technology platform that generates 40 percent of its business from online orders and the balance from traditional transactional sales. “We see ourselves as the leaders in technology,” says Abrams. “For as long as technology and supply chain efficiency resonates, I expect that we’ll continue to dominate.”
“I’m delighted to be here,” adds Herzog. “This is a great company with a great foundation and we all expect it to grow dramatically.”
Herzog is currently traveling between his home in the Pittsburgh area and CIC’s Chicago operations but is in the process of relocating to Illinois with his wife and young son.
