About Me-Rob Strahs
Operator. Growth Leader. Builder of Businesses and Teams.
30 years of B2B experience
I am a senior operating executive with more than 30 years of experience building, growing, and improving manufacturing and distribution businesses. My career has progressed through sales, product management, marketing, operations, general management, and C-level leadership, giving me a broad understanding of how the major functions of a business must work together to drive profitable growth.
I have led businesses ranging from small entrepreneurial operations to organizations with revenues exceeding $1 billion, across industries including electrical products, plastics and packaging, wire and cable, and magnetic materials. Those businesses served a wide range of end markets and gave me exposure to customers, suppliers, manufacturing operations, and commercial organizations throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Throughout my career, I have remained a hands-on leader. I have built and reorganized teams, launched new product lines, improved pricing and sales processes, expanded manufacturing capabilities, integrated acquisitions, supported divestitures, developed new sourcing relationships, and led businesses through periods of significant growth and change.
The common thread has been simple: build strong teams, establish practical and repeatable processes, stay close to the customer and the operation, and create sustainable, profitable growth.
What Services I'm Providing
Consulting
If your sales or profits are not meeting your goals I can help you review your business to determine the root causes and develop a plan to achieve your goal. You need to know your numbers so it starts with a discussion and a spreadsheet.
Coaching
Do you have an underperforming team member or department? I can can help understand the current status and then build a plan to improve performance. It starts with an interview, personality testing and then a building a path to improvement.
Work Experience
Success across multiple industries based on understanding Customer needs, empowering and putting the right people in the right seats on the bus and establishing processes.
Helped transform a growing, entrepreneurial wire and cable reseller into a billion-dollar-plus North American supplier with a broad portfolio of branded products. During this period, expanded from 10 to 23 warehouses encompassing more than 3 million square feet, while new product lines were added almost annually. My responsibilities spanned Canadian operations, product strategy, marketing, pricing, inventory, and the infrastructure required to support rapid growth. We navigated volatile copper, aluminum, steel, and plastics markets, tariffs, and complex global supply chains while maintaining an intense focus on customer service—including the ability to receive and ship orders the same day. Just as importantly, we built the people, processes, systems, and back-office capabilities necessary to support growth at scale.
Joined this historic magnetic materials manufacturer initially to reinvigorate global sales after years of limited organic growth and poorly integrated acquisitions. Following a change in ownership, I became part of the management team that, alongside private equity, acquired and repositioned the business. We divested non-core operations, moved selected manufacturing to Asia, completed strategic acquisitions, and rationalized manufacturing across the U.S. and Europe. My responsibilities ultimately included three major business units spanning precision machining, foundry operations, and specialized electromagnetic products. Throughout the transformation, we delivered multiple years of EBITDA growth. The investment was ultimately successfully realized, creating approximately $100 million in additional enterprise value.
Held progressively broader sales, marketing, operations, and general management responsibilities, including P&L leadership for a wire and cable business. Worked extensively with manufacturing operations and participated in the acquisition and integration of two companies encompassing five plants, providing early experience in combining commercial strategy with manufacturing execution.
Led a specialty flexible-plastics packaging converter with a strong focus on operational and quality improvement. Productivity gains enabled the operation to move from three shifts to two while maintaining required output—significantly reducing staffing challenges, operating complexity, and costs while improving overall manufacturing discipline.
Began with an intensive six-month cross-functional training program followed by two years in field sales. After becoming the company’s top salesperson, I was recruited into product management with responsibility for private-label products—providing an early foundation in the connection between customers, pricing, products, manufacturing, and profitability.
Mental Vitamins
