I work with companies in construction, manufacturing, and private equity to fix operations, close transactions, and build the leadership structures that sustain growth.
Operator first. Advisor when that is what the work requires.
Whether you need someone to run the operation, prepare for a transaction, solve a specific problem, or think through a decision you cannot afford to get wrong — I have been in that seat. Fractional, interim, or advisory, structured around what the situation actually requires.
ConstructionManufacturingPrivate Equity
28+
Years as CEO, COO, Managing Director & VP
$2.2B+
Total Revenue Managed
6
Countries Operated In
3
Successful Exits
6
Lucrative Acquisitions
3
Unique Mergers
I typically work with three to five companies at a time. • Operators call me when the business stops responding.
Background
Built, fixed, and sold companies across three continents.
I have spent nearly three decades running operations, not observing them from the boardroom. I have taken a startup from zero to $300 million and a successful exit. I have consolidated sixteen companies under a single holding structure and delivered a $500 million valuation. I have walked into broken operations and cut costs by 37% while simultaneously growing revenue.
I work directly with founders and executives running $5M to $100M businesses who have hit a wall. Growth has stalled, operations are losing margin, or the company needs to professionalize before a raise, sale, or the next stage of growth. I operate inside your business and own execution alongside your team, serving as CEO or COO, not as an outside consultant handing you a report.
Manufacturing, construction, industrial services, distribution, and consumer products are the sectors I know from the inside, and where my experience is deepest.
Chief Development Officer
$60M National Modular Manufacturing & Construction Company
Board of Advisors
$17B Construction Corporation, Largest in North America
Chief Executive Officer
$50M Consumer Product Company, Acquired by Public Company
Co-Chief Executive Officer
$1.6B Private Equity Firm, Global Real Estate & Construction
Chief Executive Officer
$500M Holding Company, Construction, Manufacturing & Real Estate
Chief Executive Officer
$300M Global Manufacturing & Distribution, Institutional-backed, Successful Exit
Chief Operating Officer
$200M Automotive, Medical & Aerospace Components Manufacturer
Previously operated in environments backed by or alongside institutional investors, public companies, and private equity sponsors across North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
The Trigger Moment
When people call me.
It is rarely a strategy problem. It is almost always an execution problem that has been building for months. These are the situations where I get the call.
Revenue is growing but EBITDA is shrinking.
Growth is masking the problem. Every new dollar of revenue is costing more than the last one.
You are still the bottleneck in every decision.
The business cannot move without you. Nothing gets done and nothing gets decided unless it goes through you first.
You do not fully trust your leadership team.
The right people are not in the right seats. You know it. You are just not sure what to do about it.
You are preparing for a raise, a sale, or lender scrutiny.
The business needs to look and operate like a professionally managed company, not a founder-led one.
Operations are breaking under growth.
You have outgrown the systems and the team that got you here. The cracks are showing and customers are starting to notice.
You need a COO but cannot justify a full-time hire.
The business is not yet big enough for a $300K executive, but it is too big to keep running without one.
How I Work
Three ways to engage, depending on what your business needs.
Every engagement starts with a direct conversation about what the business actually needs, not what fits a pre-packaged service model. Some situations call for embedded leadership. Others call for a sharp outside perspective on a specific problem. I work in whatever structure delivers the best outcome.
01
Fractional CEO / COO
1 to 2 days per week
Embedded operating leadership on a retained basis. I join your leadership team, own KPIs, manage people, and drive execution. Designed for companies that need senior leadership but are not yet ready for a full-time hire. Minimum six-month engagement.
02
Interim Executive
Full-time, 3 to 12 months
When a business is in transition, turnaround, or preparing for a transaction and needs a full-time operator right away. I step in as acting CEO or COO, stabilize operations, execute the plan, and either transition to a permanent hire or remain through the closing event.
03
Strategic Advisory
Project-based or ongoing
For CEOs, COOs, presidents, founders, and boards who need someone who has run the business before. A specific problem to solve, a transaction to evaluate, a decision to pressure-test, or an outside perspective on where the operation is leaking. Typically 30 to 90 days with clear deliverables, or ongoing as a trusted sounding board. Full M&A transaction support is available separately.
The Economics
Fractional vs. full-time: the decision most founders get wrong.
A full-time COO or CEO is the right answer — eventually. But the timing and cost of that hire matter enormously. Here is how the options compare.
Option
Annual Cost
Time to Impact
Risk
Full-time COO / CEO
$300K to $500K + equity
6 to 9 months
High — wrong hire is expensive
Search firm + onboarding
$80K to $120K in fees alone
3 to 6 months to hire
High — no guarantee of fit
Fractional (Jacob Schlesinger)
Monthly retainer
Immediate
Low — no equity, no long-term commitment
Most engagements recover their cost within 60 to 90 days — through margin improvement, cost reduction, or a transaction that would not have closed without the right operator in the room.
The question is not whether you can afford fractional executive leadership. It is whether you can afford to keep operating without it.
Selected Results
Results from companies I have led.
These are outcomes from companies where I served as CEO, COO, or Managing Director.
Problem Margin erosion, a disorganized leadership structure, and a product line that had stopped growing. The founder needed an exit but the business was not acquirable in its current state.
Action Rebuilt the organizational structure, redirected growth strategy, launched new product lines, and led a full marketing transformation. Identified and negotiated the acquisition by a publicly traded company.
Outcome
125%
Revenue growth in 8 months
37%
EBITDA achieved
40%
Productivity increase
Holding Company • Consolidation
16 entities, 52 years of bloat, and a $500M valuation being destroyed by inefficiency.
Problem A 52-year-old holding company spanning construction, manufacturing, and real estate was hemorrhaging value across 16 entities with duplicated costs, no central purchasing, and no coherent operating structure.
Action Stepped in as CEO. Consolidated operations, reduced headcount strategically, centralized purchasing, and rebuilt the group into a clean, sale-ready structure.
Outcome
37%
Cost reduction
$10M
Annual savings captured
60%
Faster decision-making
Manufacturing • Startup to Exit
Zero to $300M in six years: built, scaled, and exited a global manufacturing operation.
Problem Starting from zero in a capital-intensive industry with no existing infrastructure, no institutional backing, and no established customer base.
Action Built an industrial manufacturing and distribution company across six countries. Secured institutional backing, established strategic alliances with major industry players, and served leading customers in oil and gas, fire safety, and aerospace.
$200M manufacturer losing ground on quality, market share, and operational discipline.
Problem A North American manufacturer serving automotive, medical, and aerospace clients was losing market share and struggling with defect rates that were damaging customer relationships and margins.
Action Stepped in as COO. Instituted daily KPI reviews, launched a global supply chain improvement program, and established a $55M distribution facility. Rebuilt production discipline from the floor up.
Outcome
63%
Market share growth
92%
Defect reduction
30%
Profit margin improvement
Transactions
M&A advisory from someone who has been on both sides of the table.
I have bought companies, sold companies, integrated acquisitions, and worked directly with PE sponsors at every stage. I do not advise on transactions from a distance. I have been inside every one.
Sell-Side
Exit Preparation & Sale Process
Most businesses are not ready to sell when the founder thinks they are. I help owners get the business operationally and financially positioned to maximize value before going to market — and stay in the room through the process.
EBITDA normalization and quality of earnings preparation
Management team assessment and presentation
Operational clean-up and margin improvement pre-LOI
CIM support and buyer-facing narrative
Representation through due diligence and close
Buy-Side
Acquisition Evaluation & Diligence
Financial models do not tell you whether an operation can actually perform. I evaluate acquisition targets as an operator — identifying the real risks, the hidden costs, and whether the business can deliver what the model assumes.
Operational due diligence on target companies
Management team and organizational structure assessment
Identification of post-close risk and value leakage
Integration planning prior to close
Go / no-go recommendation with operating rationale
Post-Acquisition
Integration & Value Creation
The deal closing is not the hard part. Integration is. I step in post-close to drive the operational changes that the investment thesis depends on, before misalignment takes hold and value starts to erode.
Day 1 through Day 100 operating plan
Systems, process, and team consolidation
Culture and leadership alignment across entities
Synergy capture and cost structure reset
KPI framework and reporting build-out
PE Deal Support
Sponsor & Portfolio Advisory
PE sponsors need operators who understand both the financial thesis and the operational reality. I work directly with sponsors and their portfolio companies — at the deal stage, during the hold period, or when a company is underperforming against plan.
Operating partner support for deal teams
Portfolio company performance assessment
Interim CEO / COO for underperforming assets
Hold period value creation planning and execution
Exit readiness and management presentation prep
Sectors
Three industries. Twenty-eight years of operating depth.
Twenty-eight years of operating experience across three industries. I know the business models, the margin structures, the talent challenges, and the failure modes because I have lived them as CEO, COO, and Managing Director.
■
Construction
From national modular builders to $17B commercial contractors, I have led construction businesses through growth, restructuring, and strategic transactions. I understand project economics, subcontractor risk, bonding, and the operational complexity that kills margin in this industry.
General contracting and specialty subcontractors
Modular and prefabricated construction
Real estate development and infrastructure
Multi-entity holding company consolidation
Pre-transaction and exit preparation
■
Manufacturing
I have built, scaled, and exited manufacturing operations across six countries. From automotive components to industrial distribution, I know how to drive quality, reduce defects, build supply chains, and position a manufacturer for institutional backing or a strategic sale.
Industrial and component manufacturing
Automotive, aerospace, and medical devices
Consumer product manufacturing and DTC
Global distribution and supply chain
Startup to institutional scale and exit
■
Private Equity
I have operated inside a $1.6B private equity firm and worked alongside PE-backed portfolio companies throughout my career. I understand what sponsors need from operating leadership, how to prepare a business for a hold period, and how to position a company for a clean exit on schedule.
PE portfolio company operating leadership
Value creation and EBITDA improvement
Carve-outs and post-acquisition integration
Management team assessment and build-out
Exit readiness and transaction preparation
Point of View
What I believe about building companies.
After 28 years running operations, the same patterns show up repeatedly. These are not opinions. They are observations from every company I have led.
01
Most companies do not have a strategy problem. They have an execution problem.
02
If the founder is still the decision bottleneck, the business has already hit its ceiling.
03
Revenue growth without operational discipline is just delayed pain.
04
You do not fix a business with reports. You fix it by changing how decisions are made every day.
05
If your numbers surprise you at the end of the month, you do not have control of your business.
What Founders Say
From the people who brought me in.
These are not endorsements. They are descriptions of what actually happened inside the business.
What makes Jacob different is that he does not advise from the outside. He operates from the inside. He made decisions, owned outcomes, and carried the weight like a true COO.
Founder • $40M Consumer Products Company
We had been talking about fixing operations for over a year. He came in and did it in under ninety days. Not theory, not frameworks. Just execution.
CEO • Manufacturing & Distribution
We were not ready to hire a full-time executive, but we needed real leadership. He filled that gap perfectly and helped us get to the next stage without overbuilding the organization.
Founder • $25M Industrial Services Company
When we started preparing for a transaction, he brought discipline and structure that we did not have. That directly impacted how the business was positioned and how buyers responded.
Owner • Construction Holding Group
Published Work
Published work.
Business • Leadership • Growth Strategy
Zero to $100M
A practical guide to building a company from the ground up to nine figures. Not theory, and not frameworks borrowed from someone else's case study. This is what I learned building, scaling, and exiting companies across manufacturing, construction, and industrial services over 28 years. The decisions that mattered, the mistakes that cost real money, and the operational discipline that separates companies that grow from those that stall.
Written for the founder who wants to understand what the path to $100M actually looks like from the CEO seat.
The Avi Stern Series
An espionage thriller series following intelligence operative Avi Stern through a world of covert networks, institutional power, and the true cost of loyalty.
Book I
Zero Margin
When a dormant intelligence network suddenly reactivates, the man who built it becomes the primary target. He has 72 hours to find out who turned it back on.
Book II
The Barista
Thirty-three cafes, thirteen countries, and one covert network hiding in plain sight. Avi Stern follows the trail to its source before it disappears for good.
Book III
Black Doctrine
When war becomes an algorithm, someone has to stop the machine. The final book in the series brings Stern face to face with the doctrine he helped create.
Engagement Structure
How a typical engagement unfolds.
No two companies are the same, but the approach is consistent: diagnose, execute, sustain.
Days 1-30
Operational Assessment
A thorough diagnostic across financials, organizational structure, processes, margins, pipeline, and talent. We identify the highest-impact problems, establish baseline metrics, and set reporting rhythms. The goal in the first 30 days is clarity and trust.
Days 30-120
Execution Sprint
We implement the top priorities. Whether that is cost reduction, revenue acceleration, restructuring, or transaction preparation, this is where real change happens. Weekly KPI reviews, direct accountability, and hands on the wheel.
Ongoing
Sustained Leadership
Ongoing fractional operating rhythm with strategic planning, team development, financial oversight, and preparation for whatever comes next: growth, fundraise, sale, or transition to a full-time executive.
Selectivity
Who I work with — and who I do not.
Working with the wrong company is a bad outcome for everyone. I am direct about fit from the first conversation.
This is not for
Early-stage startups under $5M
Leaders who want validation rather than an honest assessment
Companies unwilling to make hard decisions
This is for
Founders and executives running $5M to $100M businesses that have hit a wall
PE-backed companies that need an operator, not a consultant
Businesses preparing for a raise, sale, or exit in the next 12 to 24 months
Companies in transition that need senior leadership without a full-time hire
Founders ready to move fast and make hard calls
The Path Forward
From first conversation to full engagement in three steps.
No RFP. No lengthy proposal. No six-week discovery phase billed at consulting rates. Here is exactly what happens when you reach out.
01
30 minutes
The Conversation
We talk. You describe what is broken or what you are trying to build. I tell you honestly whether I think I can help and what that would look like. No pitch, no agenda.
02
1 to 2 weeks
The Diagnostic
A focused deep dive into your business: financials, organizational structure, operations, and key relationships. I surface the real problems, not the symptoms. This becomes the operating plan.
03
Engagement begins
Execution
We agree on the structure — fractional, interim, or project — and I am in. KPIs are set, the team knows the mandate, and we start moving on day one.
Get in Touch
If you are here, something is not working. Let us figure out if I can fix it.
I typically work with three to five companies at a time. If one of the situations above describes where you are, reach out directly. I respond to every serious inquiry personally.
Three to five engagements at a time. No exceptions.Reach out below ↓
