Meet the President

David M. Schwartz is a leader in the effective application of proven, fundamental business performance improvement strategies. He is principal of Jacquard Associates, Inc., which specializes in making strong companies stronger; improving the results of troubled companies; and helping high-growth organizations manage and sustain their growth.

David is the architect of the Four Success Threads™ approach to business improvement, which leads clients to focus on and develop the four primary threads of a strong business fabric: Customer Focus, Financial Discipline, Operational Speed, and Leadership Practice. Under his guidance, the Jacquard team has helped client companies execute the Four Threads approach using a mix of proprietary tools to realize their business potential. Jacquard also develops and hosts issue- and industry-specific seminars, custom-tailored workshops and focused roundtable discussions.

Before establishing Jacquard Associates, David was president of an international division of General Instrument Corporation (now Motorola), a Fortune 200 company. There, he integrated manufacturing, marketing, engineering and finance, and developed and executed successful market-driven strategies. He also received the General Instrument Management Leadership Award for the turnaround of the company and its five divisions. David previously was the Product Line Manager for ITT Corporation-North American Telecommunications.

David is a popular speaker for business and industry organizations, among them the American Society of Quality, the American Marketing Association, the Institute of International Research, Productivity Inc., and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He serves as a board member for several not-for-profit organizations, including the Lawndale Charter School and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, as well as various privately held corporations.

Ken Harris is a proven leader in building profitable businesses during times of growth and change. Ken creates a unified vision to profitably serve target markets and develop organizational goals. He implements processes that ensure a company’s sales, marketing, engineering, operations and finance teams collaborate to effectively implement the strategies necessary to succeed. Before joining Jacquard, Ken was a Division General Manager for SCA, a Financial Times 200 International company. He led the creation and growth of profitable business units in the healthcare, building products and industrial markets.

At SCA he differentiated a commodity division generating 300% growth and profitability over a 4 year period, created a successful direct to market strategy for a stagnant OEM product line group and oversaw the successful re-engineering of sales and marketing for a large underperforming business unit. His business units were regularly awarded top vendor honors at large multinational companies such as Merck, Fisher Scientific and others. He also brings 17 years of operating experience in Venture Capital acquisitions to Jacquard.

Jeremy Schwartz helps lead Jacquard with his proactive client development and extensive project management skills.  He enters every client engagement with a clear vision of how to help them determine their goals and grow sales.  Jeremy works one-on-one with our clients focusing on Jacquard's Customer Focus and Operational Speed Threads.

Among his responsibilities, Jeremy is responsible for helping Jacquard’s clients enter into the realm of Social Media Marketing.  There is a place in everybody’scompany for many of the internet communications sites.  Jeremy has worked with Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a series of more specialized sites.  He can easily increase your company’s public profile.

Jeremy previously honed his talents at Celebration Authority, selling, planning and executing corporate and college entertainment events.  He acquired and maintained client relationships, developed many key partnerships with various vendors through different networking events.  He saw the opportunity to break into the college market for events and successfully made that a key part of the business. Revenues steadily increased even through a tough economy.  He was the top salesperson for three years in a row! 

Jeremy graduated from Carthage College in Kenosha Wisconsin with a double major in Business Administration and Marketing in 2004.  He served on the board of directors for the International Special Events Society from 2008 to 2010.

Jolene Pratt strengthens Jacquard with her specialty of developing and maintaining internal processes. She manages Jacquard's daily internal operations, client coordination activities and meeting schedules.

Jolene also directly assists clients with many of their projects, specializing in Cash Flow Management and Modeling and Accounts Receivable Management. She manages and implements other Financial Discipline Profit Projects^® using the Jacquard Cashflow.

Jolene is also heavily involved in Customer Focus projects, managing pricing, quoting, and customer service efforts. She always helps transition clients by ensuring that processes are firmly in place with them before leaving.

Bethany Vedder lends depth and vision to the Jacquard team with her focused design and marketing consulting. She creates and maintains the company image, ensuring that the branding carries through to all internal and client materials. She also fills the role of a muse, questioning and strengthening the company values and vision.

Bethany’s design skills, keen insights into human nature, and writing abilities enable her to enhance and clarify all of Jacquard’s internal and external communications. Her work often extends to creating specific communication vehicles defined by our clients.