The Principals of VR in Jacksonville have extensive backgrounds both as leaders of Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs who have bought, built and sold their own companies.

At the age of 26, David began his entrepreneurial career when he joined a group of executives which had just acquired the Standard Building Systems, Inc. subsidiary of Standex International, Inc. in a leveraged management buy-out.  David was Chief Financial Officer of the Company and later assumed the additional title of Chief Operating Officer.

At the age of 32, David was recruited to be Chief Financial Officer of  a struggling technology related Company –Environmental Air Control, Inc.(EACI) which had just recruited a new CEO to turnaround and then grow the Company. Over the next 10 years, David worked closely with the CEO to craft and implement a strategy which ultimately made EACI a worldwide leader in the fields of contamination control and Indoor Air Quality. David Also assumed the additional title of Chief Operating Officer and Board of Director member with P & L responsibility for 2 of EACI’s 3 divisions. In 1992 we took EACI to market and negotiated a sale of the Company to Honeywell, Inc. As part of the sale David led a management buy-out of the Envirco division which he had been running. As CEO of Envirco Corporation, David crafted and led a growth strategy which positioned Envirco as a worldwide leader and preferred supplier of contamination control products to leading technology firms such as Intel and Applied materials among others. David then  negotiated  a sale of Envirco Corporation to Trion, Inc. a NASDAQ listed public company resulting in an  1100% return to Envirco shareholders in less than 3 years. Post sale, David continued to grow Envirco as a division of Trion, Inc.  while alos serving as Trion’s Chief Operating Officer.  In 1999  David played a major  role  in the negotiation and sale of Trion, Inc. to Fedder’s Inc., a NYSE listed company which was then the world’s largest  room air conditioner manufacturer. Post sale, David elected to retire from Corporate life and reside on Amelia island, FL.

Howard holds a law degree from Seton Hall University and has spent most of his career  in human resources management and consulting. Howard began his corporate career with Prudential Insurance and moved into the consumer products field by joining P. Ballentine & Sons.

Howard next  moved to Standard Brands, Inc. where he quickly rose through the Corporate ranks of this fortune 500 Company. Early on at Standard Brands, Inc. Howard developed the Corporate Performance management systems used for determining and measuring the achievement of business goals for the three hundred most senior executives throughout Standard Brands’ worldwide operations which became the basis for all executive and succession planning activities.

Howard was subsequently promoted to Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for Standard Brands’ Consumer Products group where he was involved with restructuring and upgrading all of its functional U.S. food companies and brands. He ultimately became Senior Vice President of Standard Brands, Inc., which later became RJR Nabisco, where he had worldwide responsibility for all human resource functions within the corporation.  

In the 1980’s Howard left the Corporate executive track and embarked on a small business career when he co-founded BeamPines, Inc.  Under Howard’s leadership BeamPines has grown to become a global human resource consulting firm. Its special areas of expertise include executive assessment, succession planning, crisis management, Strategic HR Consulting, leadership development and executive coaching. Recently, Howard has phased out of the day to day operations of BeamPines but still retains some top-level CEO clients. 

Howard’s primary focus at VR in Jacksonville is recruitment and retention of associates, strategic positioning of client companies for sale, and integration assessments related to Mergers & Acquisitions. 

Howard retains a  home in New York, N.Y. but his primary residence is on Amelia Island, FL.  

Dick had a stellar career with Black & Decker where he rose quickly through management ranks and held various positions including Chief Business Development Officer, Group Vice President for domestic and international groups of companies, Subsidiary president, and Vice President of marketing. Ultimately Dick joined the office of the Chairman as Executive Vice President of the Company and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Black and Decker International.

After attaining the highest ranks in a Multi-Billion $ Fortune 500 Company. Dick decided he wanted to try his hand at  something smaller and more entrepreneurial. He joined Environmental Air Control, Inc. (EACI) as President and CEO soon after  he early retired from Black & Decker.  EACI was then a nondescript company designing clean rooms and manufacturing generic cleanroom components. With nothing unique or special EACI struggled financially and flirted with bankruptcy. Over the next nearly 10 years Dick reenergized and refocused the company. He rebuilt the organization by adding several key employees and made several strategic acquisitions. He led EACI out of the unprofitable, me-too businesses upon which it had been built and focused its limited resources on what he perceived to be the emerging issue of poor indoor air quality in homes, offices and other settings. Under his leadership, EACI opened the Enviracaire Division which introduced the first truly effective line of portable air cleaners. Dick also developed a unique strategy which was called the “White Coat”  strategy to build and then dominate the market. Where other available portable air cleaners under names like Norelco and Sunbeam were positioned and sold as  appliances alongside toasters and orange juice squeezers, Dick saw the opportunity for a serious air cleaner addressing serious health concerns. Consequently, Enviracaire proved its  product effectiveness via medical studies at leading universities and ultimaetly had the product   approved by the FDA as a Classs 2 medical device. The product was shown at various medical and health care shows and symposiums and was first introduced into the home health care market. From there it was only a matter of time until general consumers were demanding the product and wanting to know where to find it. This set the stage for introduction into the general consumer market through Big Box  like Target, Costco, Sears and others. By the time EACI was sold in 1999, It was growing at a staggering clip and was dominant in the rapidly emerging market of Inddor Air Quality.  Dick engineered the sale of the Company to Honeywell, Inc. rewarding its shareholders with a bonanza of tens of Millions of $ for a company that had been virtually bankrupt when he assumed the helm.

Following the sale of EACI, Dick retired from full time active business but set a 3^rd and final career as an investor, advisor and Board member for several exciting small and mid-market companies including EnvircoCorporation, Learning Station,Inc, Lightstream Catalytic , LLC. and Telecom Assets Management Corp.   

Dick’s  counsel to VR in Jacksonville's operating Principals, associates and our client companies is invaluable due to his unique background and ability to assess a companys  strategy and market position. He is especially valuable in evaluating strategy and advising clients on how to add sizzle and position the company for maximum value and its owners for exit.