Gary Schwartz Joins Strategy Development
BRYN MAWR, Pa. – Strategy Development, a management consulting and advanced training firm, welcomed the addition of Gary Schwartz to the team as a consultant. Schwartz, with more than fourteen years of experience in the industry, has spent his career progressing through management assignments with IKON Office Solutions and Ricoh. As a consultant with Strategy Development, Schwartz will be able to leverage his multifaceted experience to coach dealers toward achieving significant operational and productivity improvements in the sales operations and business planning areas.
Most recently, Schwartz served as strategic account manager for IKON North Texas, where he directed a team of 150 employees with a focus to solutions sales, including managed document services (MDS/MPS) and facilities management (FM). Schwartz joined IKON Office Solutions as director of financial operations after a career at Coopers & Lybrand LLP. After deciding to pursue a career in general management, Schwartz was appointed regional manager for IKON’s New Mexico branch with responsibility for sales, service and operations. After growing sales over 60 percent in a three year period, Schwartz was promoted to general sales manager in IKON’s Greater Texas Area with responsibility for five sales teams, and was subsequently promoted to director of sales with responsibility for seven sales teams and 60 sales professionals. In every assignment Schwartz grew revenue and reduced sales turnover.
"I am very excited to be part of the SD team," Schwartz said. "The sales operations processes that Tom Callinan developed at IKON worked exceptionally well when implemented without alteration, and my experience demonstrates that strong sales processes support exceptional results. I am looking forward to helping dealers achieve greater success in their traditional copier business as well as MPS/MNS."
“Gary’s experience in both finance and sales will greatly benefit our clients and the dealer community," stated Tom Callinan, principal of Strategy Development. "To me, a clear indication of success is when a manager can repeat their success in different locations or in different positions. Gary has demonstrated success at multiple levels of sales leadership in multiple States as well as in financial operations roles. I am excited to have him as a part of the Strategy Development Team.”
Ed Carroll has decided to leave SD to join TGI Office Automation, as COO/CFO. For the last three years, Carroll has been a great team member of Strategy Development and his contributions will be missed. Nevertheless, Carroll is looking forward to being home a lot more often as he masters his challenging executive position at a large dealership. Strategy Development is confident Carroll will be able to leverage his wealth of experience to help TGI continue to grow, and the SD team wishes him and the TGI team continued success.
Gary Schwartz can be reached at schwartz@strategydevelopment.com or at 817-600-2216.