Ted LeBow

Ted LeBow is a seasoned business executive with more than twenty years of experience driving entrepreneurial companies to the next level. To every challenge, he brings the ability to inspire, assess, and leverage talent at every level. A mission-driven change agent, he believes his "job is to work (himself) out of a job" and embraces opportunities to collaborate with company ownership as an ally in achieving the performance, finance, strategic and even succession goals that others deem impossible.

Founded in 2005, Ted is the Principal of JRI Consulting, a "solo-preneurship" practice, focused on coaching CEO's and business owners through a myriad of opportunities. His process is based on four Decisions: People, Cash, Strategy and Execution and three Disciplines: Priorities, Rhythm (communication) and Metrics. His current clientele include: Distributors, Technology Companies, Manufacturers, Marketing Companies and a Restaurant. Typically, his clients range from "Start-Up" to 350 employee companies.

Among his recent successes Ted's was a Division Manager at Vertis Communications, a $52M division of a billion-dollar print and mail company. Hired three months after the company sold part of that division, Ted drove a comprehensive overhaul of the remaining operation. Without sabotaging sales or morale, he reduced indirect labor by 30% and union labor by 15%, without grievances. He incorporated Metrics, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and 5S into the culture and oversaw the decentralization of ISO 9001 and 14001 across five facilities. In less than two years, Ted increased EBITDA by 43% while successfully integrating his stand-alone division into a satellite operating facility of the parent corporation.

While savvy about the concerns of larger entities, Ted is most enamored with small and mid-market companies and is himself an accomplished leader. In 2005, Ted orchestrated a leveraged buy-out of a $25M recreational vehicle dealership and raised $10M for the effort. He previously served as CEO and President of an early-stage socially-driven and funded mailing services and presort company established within a designated "empowerment zone" in Philadelphia. When Ted was brought in by owners and investors in 2001, the company carried $6M in debt on a $3M business. Ted spearheaded a turnaround that drove a strategic overhaul of its marketplace, reduced operating expenses by 37% in the first eight months, increased sales by 20% for three consecutive years, and introduced an effective management structure that transformed and motivated a previously untrained workforce. Beyond improving operations, Ted concentrated on diffusing the likely fatal deadlock he recognized between shareholders and creditors and brought two purchase offers to the table.

A 1989 graduate of Cornell University, Ted launched his career as a Change Management Analyst at Andersen Consulting. He bought his first business in 1992 and grew the specialty wood products manufacturing firm from $600K to $1.3M over three years through product growth and acquisition. Since then, he has proven his willingness to sacrifice time, energy and even personal resources for the sake of a worthy company -- and its personnel.

o that end, Ted provides pro-bono business consulting to portfolio companies of Untours Foundation (www.untoursfoundation.org), a nonprofit based in Media, PA, that provides low-interest loans to individuals and organizations in the U.S. and abroad for the purposes of creating jobs, building low-income housing, and supporting Fair Trade products through environmentally-friendly means. Committed to mentoring others, Ted is a Team Mentor for Temple University's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute Business Plan Contest. He also is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executives Group and is the Vice-Chairman of Board of the Philadelphia Urban Industry Initiative, (www.uiiphilly.org) a non-profit established in 1997 to improve opportunities for manufacturing companies based in Philadelphia.

Ted's personal accomplishments include parenting three daughters, speaking fluent Spanish, and building a grandfather clock from scratch.