Happy Father’s Day to our company’s patriarch, Izzy Schwab, and to all of the dads in our organization and partner community. #BuiltForGenerations
Happy early Father’s Day to D&H Distributing's own Izzy Schwab. Michael Schwab & I posted something similar for Izzy’s 88th Birthday, and now that he is closer to 90 than 88, we figured he had earned a reprise! D&H is fortunate to have many new partners and co-owners so we hope you enjoy. Now retired from daily operations, Izzy’s vision helped lay the foundation & set D&H Distributing on a trajectory of remarkable expansion. Izzy started his career at D&H sweeping floors in grade school. He graduated Penn State, immediately attended Army boot camp, and after his all-night drive home from Fort Knox at age 22 he stopped in the D&H office. When he arrived, his dad (who had started D&H back in 1918) pointed to a desk and told him to get to work. And that he did. Izzy held many roles over a 6+ decade career in what can best be described as a regional consumer electronics and appliance business. However, Izzy saw an opportunity in the emerging home computer & gaming industries. His initiative led to a well-timed geographic expansion across the country and provided the path for our entrance into the personal computing business. D&H had dozens of competitors, most either went out of business or were consolidated. D&H has stayed privately and family owned for all 10 plus decades. Today, D&H stands as one of 3 broadline North American distributors, highlighting the value of long-term value creation vs short term focus. The culture at D&H is what has allowed us to retain and attract the best talent in our industry, and have an environment where we all win together. No politics, no silos, no BS. Izzy also deserves accolades for establishing D&Hs ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) in 1998. His vision in this regard was brilliant, which Michael and I believe continues to play a critical part of D&H’s growth: hire great people and reward them like they are owners of the company, which they are. The employee Co-owners now own over 1/3rd of D&H which is why partners often comment on the incredible commitment to service, relationships, and passion which D&H exhibits at all levels. We believe this is D&H's "secret-sauce", the focus on people and providing the best service to partners, vendors and each other within D&H truly creates a unique value proposition. Public or private equity owned distributors, who by definition operate on a quarterly shot clock and often prioritize shareholder returns over customer success. We know our value creation comes by helping all our partners win, evolve, optimize and grow. For those interested in more information, a book commemorating D&H’s 105th anniversary can be found here, https://lnkd.in/eCzCkduW, highlighting D&H’s remarkable journey. Izzy shares today that he has the best seat in the house, a front row seat watching his friends and family grow D&H to an over $6B entity, from incredibly humble beginnings. We can only hope that D&H and we continue to make you proud.
