Dean's Advisory Council

James "Jim" R. Allen

Jim Allen is vice chairman of Baird and is a member of Baird’s Executive Committee in Louisville, Kentucky. He also served as chairman and CEO of Hilliard Lyons, a Baird Company, from 2004 until 2019. Jim is active in the financial services industry and serves as chairman of the board of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

A graduate of Fisher’s MBA program, Jim serves on the college’s Dean’s Advisory Council. He is also active in a number of service roles in Louisville. He is a member of the University of Louisville’s College of Business Board of Advisors, and he is the immediate past board chairman of the Jefferson County Public Education Foundation and the 2018 board chair of Greater Louisville, Inc., Louisville’s Chamber of Commerce. He is the former chairman of the Fund for the Arts, and he chaired the 2016 Metro United Way Campaign for Greater Louisville.

Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University and an MBA in finance from The Ohio State University. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Craig S. Bahner

Craig Bahner is the Chief Executive Officer of Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. Mr. Bahner has led the establishment and development of this new, stand-alone company since its business assets were purchased by private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. from Tyson Foods.

Previously, Mr. Bahner was president of Morning Foods at Kellogg Company, leading this key Kellogg business from 2015-17. In this role, Mr. Bahner delivered a dramatic profitability improvement on the business while improving operational excellence and implementing enterprise-level growth and profit initiatives.

Prior to Kellogg, he was chief marketing officer of The Wendy's Company from 2012-15. Mr. Bahner led the brand turnaround, completely transforming the Wendy’s brand including positioning, brand identity, menu vision and product pipeline, as well as breakthrough digital marketing campaigns. Before joining Wendy’s, Mr. Bahner spent 20 years with global consumer giant The Procter & Gamble Company in a variety of leadership roles. From 2006-11, he was vice president of North America Retail Hair, where he rejuvenated a stagnant category by optimizing the brand portfolio and delivering record margins and profits. From 2002-06, he was vice president of Northeast Asia Fabric & Home Care, located in Japan. Under his leadership, this business doubled sales and tripled profit via organic growth, new brand launches and acquisitions. Prior to this role, he consistently moved into positions of increasing responsibility in Procter & Gamble’s brand management organization.

Mr. Bahner is a graduate of The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, where he is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council and a recipient of the 2017 Global Business Excellence Alumni Award. Mr. Bahner is also a trustee of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Outside of work, Mr. Bahner is an avid aviator, holding an Airline Transport Pilot certificate.

David I. Beatson

David Beatson is a member of the executive board of ATL Partners, a sector specific private equity firm that invests in the aerospace, transportation, and logistics Industry. He serves as Vice-Chairman, Pilot Freight Services, an ATL portfolio company. Pilot provides domestic and international freight forwarding and third-party logistics services to companies including Amazon, Wal-Mart, GE, UTC, and others. David is also on the board of Rock-it Cargo, another ATL portfolio company, which serves the music and entertainment, corporate events and project industries.  The company cargo for the live events and musicians including the Rolling Stones and Elton John world tours.

In addition, David serves on the board of directors of Stargo, an artificial intelligence based pricing optimization and shipment automation platform designed to serve the transportation and logistics industry.   He also serves on the board of PFSweb (NASDAQ: PFSW), an e-commerce fulfillment company, where he is chairman of the audit committee and a member of the compensation committee.

David Beatson is also Founder and Managing Director, Ascent Advisors, LLC, a management-consulting firm serving the supply chain, transportation, and logistics industry. Previous positions include Chief Executive Officer, Emery Worldwide, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Circle International Group, Vice President of Cargo, American Airlines, and Chief Executive Officer, Panalpina, North America.  He also served on the Board of Descartes Systems (NASDAQ: DSGX) for 15 years.  David has extensive knowledge of domestic and international freight forwarding, customs brokerage, third party logistics, truckload, less-than-truck load, contract logistics, e-commerce, and omni-channel last mile fulfillment.

David received his B.S. in business administration from Fisher College of Business and his MBA from the University of Cincinnati.  He and his wife, Diana, live in Hillsborough, California.

Paula L. Bennett

Paula Bennett is a highly experienced CEO from the retail industry, with proven success at creating brand value and driving profitable growth across omnichannel platforms.  She has an excellent record at building portfolio companies for public, private and private equity investors, and led the successful IPO of J. Jill (NYSE:JILL) in March 2017.  Paula served on the Board of At Home (NYSE:HOME) and its Nominating & Governance Committee through transition to a private company in July 2021. 

 As CEO of J.Jill from 2008 to 2018, Paula transformed the business and culture to create an industry-leading omnichannel brand. She has held senior leadership positions at Eileen Fisher, Tiffany & Co., Calvin Klein, and Bloomingdale’s, where she developed and leveraged her extensive experience in women’s apparel, jewelry and decorative home categories across sales, marketing, CRM, merchandising, product development and omni-channel business and team development. 

Paula is an active supporter of the advancement of women in business.  She serves on the Board of Women’s Forum of New York.  She is a member of C200, an invitation-only organization comprised of female entrepreneurs and corporate innovators.  Paula is a Managing Director at Golden Seeds Capital and a member of Paradigm for Parity. A proud graduate of The Ohio State University, Paula is an active member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of Fisher College of Business at OSU,  a member of the Fisher Leadership Initiative, and founder of the Women in Leadership Fund to advance mentorship of female students at Fisher. 

Michelle Brown

Michelle helps leaders to grow and have an even bigger impact on the company and the community.  CoverMyMeds is a leader in health care technology and part of McKesson Prescription Technology Solutions (MRxTS). Michelle joined the organization in 2008 as vice president of customer operations, eventually moving into the role of COO, in which she was responsible for marketing, shared technologies, information security, risk management, customer operations, and recruiting and engaging the most amazing talent. In her most recent role with CoverMyMeds, she is focused on growing the next generation of leaders continuing to make CoverMyMeds the best place to work and grow. CoverMyMeds has received numerous awards for being a great place to work, including recognition as one of the top 50 companies to work for in the U.S.

Michelle’s career has focused on high-growth companies, primarily in health care and technology. Prior to joining CoverMyMeds, she spent several years driving start-up growth with IntoGreat Companies and served as vice president of operations for ExpressMed, a high-growth HME provider.

Outside of work, Michelle also enjoys contributing to the community as a member of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Ambassador Council and as a girls youth Lacrosse coach.

Corrine Burger

Corrine is the Chief Control Manager for JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPMC). As Chief Control Manager, she is responsible for overseeing the risk control framework as part of the first line-of defense in an operational risk management construct.  This Controls team works with various business functions to provide appropriate governance and oversight and to ensure problems get identified quickly, escalated properly, remediated where appropriate and develop solutions to prevent them from occurring in the future.

In addition to her role in controls, Corrine is also the Columbus Strategic Hub Location Leader and represents the 20,000 employees in Central Ohio.

Prior to her work in controls, she was Controller for the various divisions for JPMC for nine years through numerous mergers.

She previously was a member of the Corporate Accounting team where she assisted on a number of merger and acquisition due-diligence teams and was involved in the preparation of required SEC reporting. She began her JPMC career in Internal Audit and qualifies as a financial expert under the SEC guidelines.

Early in her career, Corrine served as an Audit Manager with Deloitte in their Phoenix, AZ office as a Certified Public Accountant.  She is a graduate of The Ohio State University.

Corrine is currently a member of the Columbus 2020 Board of Directors in a three year term. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Columbus State Community College.

Corrine lives in Dublin, Ohio with her husband and has four children.

Kenneth "Ken" L. Coleman

Ken Coleman is Chairman of EIS Group, one of the leading software companies serving the insurance industry.

A Silicon Valley pioneer, Ken Coleman was the founder, chairman and CEO of ITM Software, an enterprise software company, whose solution focused on the information technology function. Previously, Ken was the Chief Revenue Officer of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI). Prior to joining SGI, Ken was VP of Product Development at Activision. Earlier, he spent 10 years at Hewlett-Packard Company, where he held several management positions.

In addition to his role at EIS Group, Ken serves on the board of directors of Prevedere, Saama Technologies and Entertainment Partners.  He is currently a Special Advisor to both Andreessen Horowitz Venture Capital Firm and Carrick Capital Partners Private Equity Firm. He is also an advisor to Pinterest, CSSA Insurance Group, Substack, as well as several other early stage technology companies. He is a member of the Executive Leadership Council and the Dean's Advisory Council for the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.  He is on the board of several non-profits including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and MLT.

Mr. Coleman is the recipient of numerous honors, including The Ohio State University Distinguished Service Award and School of Business Distinguished Graduate Award, the National Alliance of Black School Educators Living Legend Award, the American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley Exemplary Leader Award, the One Hundred Black Men of Silicon Valley Lifetime Achievement Award, the Silicon Valley Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame, the Silicon Valley Conference for Community and Justice Annual Exemplary Community Leadership Award, the Rainbow Push Coalition Technology, Innovation and Leadership Award, the Information Technology Senior Management Forum Beacon Award, the Black Chamber of Silicon Valley Spirit of Excellence Award in Business, the National Black MBA Association H. Naylor Fitzhugh Award, as well as being inducted into the Global Silicon Valley Hall of Fame.

Ken earned both a BS and a MBA from The Ohio State University. He also served as a captain in the United States Air Force.

Tanny Crane

Tanny Crane is President and C.E.O. of Crane Group.  Crane Group, a 74-year-old, privately-held diversified portfolio company, is comprised of three operating businesses as well as an investment company that holds real estate, private equity investments, equities / bond portfolio, and hedge funds.

Ms. Crane received her M.B.A. from Northwestern University and her B.S. from The Ohio State University.  She began her career in sales as a National Account Manager at AT&T in Chicago, then with Quaker Oats where she managed: Aunt Jemima frozen waffles, new cereals, and the Cap’n Crunch cereal brand.  She joined Crane in 1987 as Director of Human Resources, then led the Sales group and became President of Crane Plastics in 1996 and President of Crane Group in 2003.

Ms. Crane is active in the community on a variety of board trustee positions.  She serves as a director of Huntington Bancshares, Inc., and is a board member of the following organizations: The Columbus Partnership, The Ohio State University Foundation, Fisher College Dean’s Advisory Council, Future Ready Columbus, I Know I Can, chairs the Reeb Avenue Center board and serves on the executive committee of the Ohio Business Roundtable.  Ms. Crane served on the Federal Reserve Bank board, was on the governing committee of The Columbus Foundation and was past Board Chair of the United Way of Central Ohio as well as Action for Children.  She also served as 1999 United Way Campaign Chair.

Ms. Crane resides with her husband, John Wolff in New Albany, Ohio.  They have four daughters: Kristin, Stephany, Tally and Ali, and two grandchildren.

Anthony "Tony" F. Cummings

Clayton "Clayt" C. Daley, Jr.

Clayt spent his entire 35-year career with Procter & Gamble, retiring in 2009 as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer.  Prior to that, Clayt had been Vice President and Treasurer, as well as Controller of the Company’s US and International businesses.  For the years 2004-2009, he was named “Top CFO, Consumer Products,” by Institutional Investor magazine.

The foundation for this professional career included Clayt’s 1974 M.B.A. from Ohio State University, with a focus on Finance & Accounting, and his 1973 degree in Economics from Davidson College.

Clayt currently serves on the Board of Directors of Simply Good Foods, parent company of Atkins low carb lifestyle food and beverage products.

Clayt and his wife Meredythe support numerous charitable causes around the country, primarily focused on children, medicine and the arts.   Clayt also makes extensive wine donations to charitable wine tasting fund-raisers in Cincinnati, Sarasota and Fort Bragg (on California’s north coast).

Clayt and his wife have two married sons, including Clayton III, who in 2006 also received his M.B.A. from OSU’s Fisher College.

Ruann F. Ernst

Dr. Ruann Ernst is a three-time graduate of The Ohio State University (BS 1968, Mathematics Education; MA 1969, Education; and PhD 1977, Public Policy and Management), appointed to the Foundation Board of Directors in 2001. Ruann is former chairman and CEO of Digital Island, a managed hosting and Internet services company that was acquired by Cable & Wireless PLC in 2001. 

Ruann spent 13 years at Hewlett-Packard (HP) Company, most recently as general manager of the Financial Services Business Unit. Prior to HP, she was vice president and general manager of Applications Marketing Operation with General Electric Information Services Co. She has also served as director of the Medical Computing Services Division and assistant professor of Medicine and Computer Science at Ohio State, and as a congressional fellow in the Office of Technology Assessment. Ruann serves on the boards of Digital Realty Trust and IHS, Inc. She is also the board chair and founder of Healthy LifeStars®, a non-profit focused on combating childhood obesity. 

Ruann has been an active volunteer leader at Ohio State, serving two terms on the board of directors of The Ohio State University Alumni Association, and currently serving on  Fisher College of Business Dean’s Advisory Council and as co-chair of The Ohio State Innovation Foundation. She is a former vice chair of the Foundation Board. Through her leadership at Hewlett Packard, Ruann helped to make possible over $3 million in gifts and gifts-in-kind to the Ohio State College of Engineering and its Department of Computer and Information Science. She and her husband, Bill Riffle, endowed The Ruann F. Ernst & William C. Riffle Scholarship Fund at Fisher College of Business supporting undergraduate technology students with a focus on engineering students. Ruann was awarded the University’s Distinguished Service Award in 2013. 

Ruann and her husband Bill live in Los Altos Hills, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona. 

Timothy "Tim" B. Gallagher

Timothy Gallagher is a Managing Director for Annaly Capital Management (“Annaly”) based in New York City.  Annaly manages over $100 billion of fixed income assets and employs over 150 professionals in the US.  Timothy is the head of Annaly Commercial Real Estate where he oversees an investment team of 30 professionals and a $3 billion portfolio of assets ranging from commercial mortgaged-backed securities to equity real estate located throughout the US. 

Prior to Annaly, Timothy worked in private equity for Prima Capital Advisors.  At Prima, Timothy was a Portfolio Manager and invested on behalf of funds, separate accounts and other clients seeking exposure to real assets.  Prior to Prima, Timothy spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley in New York as a Managing Director and worked in the Sales & Trading area of the Fixed Income Division where he managed the trading, distribution and risk of various commercial mortgage related products.  Previous to Morgan Stanley, Timothy spent six years as a Managing Director for Goldman Sachs & Co, a global investment banking, securities and investment management firm.  At Goldman Sachs, Timothy was based in New York and worked in the Americas Financing Group where he ran the mortgage origination and distribution business.  Prior to that, Timothy was a Managing Director in the European Financing Group for Goldman Sachs International, in London, where he worked with corporate and financial sponsor clients across Europe on various financing, M&A and debt capital markets transactions.  Prior to his time in Europe, Timothy was in Sales & Trading in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division of Goldman Sachs in New York.

Timothy is a past Chairman of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council - the main lobbying group for the commercial real estate finance industry.  Timothy was the Chair for three years from 2015-2017.  Timothy is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors for the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Real Estate at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at the Fisher College of Business.  Timothy earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The Ohio State University. 

John B. "Jay" Gerlach, Jr.

John B. “Jay” Gerlach, Jr. currently serves as executive chairman of the board of the Lancaster Colony Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of specialty foods. Prior to this position, he served as chief executive officer from 1997 to 2017. Jay is an active contributor to a number of organizations throughout central Ohio. At Ohio State, Jay serves on the Fisher College of Business Dean’s Advisory Council and previously served on the Wexner Medical Center Board, and was the chair of the Ross Heart Hospital board of directors. Jay and the Gerlach family are dedicated supporters of neurology and cardiovascular research, and have contributed generously to Fisher, the Ross Heart Hospital, cancer research, athletics, wetlands research, and the renovation of the William Oxley Thompson Library. Jay and his wife Aleusha live in Dublin, Ohio.

Camille Maria Gibson

Before embarking on her new adventure at Sana Foods by The Real Coconut Products Co. LLC, Camille Gibson was most recently the vice president of marketing at General Mills and business unit director for Cheerios, Wheaties, Nature Valley and Cascadian Farms. She was responsible for the growth and profitability of the $2.5B business unit, including vision and strategy development and marketing and new product innovation. During her career she led several businesses including Pillsbury, Green Giant, Yoplait, Nature Valley and Cheerios.

One of 10 children, Camille was born in London, England, and has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Columbus, Ohio. She earned her bachelor's degree and an MBA from Ohio State and was the first woman selected to receive Fisher's Distinguished Leadership Alumni Award. In 2014, she was named one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business" by Fast Company, received Adweek's Brand Genius Award, and was recognized by Brand Innovators as one of the "Women to Watch."

Currently, Camille lives in Seattle and has two adult children.

Mark R. Goldston

Mark R. Goldston is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of The Goldston Group in Los Angeles, California, which is primarily focused on venture capital and emerging growth company investing and providing strategic advisory services to a range of companies and Private Equity firms. He is the major investor, co-founder and General Partner of Athletic Propulsion Labs, LLC, an athletic footwear and apparel company based in Los Angeles. Mark is also a Founding Member of the Chairman’s Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Chargers of the NFL.

Previously from 2001-2013 Mark was the Chairman, President and CEO of United Online, Inc (Nasdaq: UNTD), an internet conglomerate consisting of NetZero, Juno, FTD Group, Interflora UK, Classmates, MyPoints and StayFriends among the 15 companies acquired during his tenure. United Online was created in September 2001 with the merger of NetZero and Juno Online. Previously, Mark had been the first Chairman and CEO of NetZero joining as one of the earliest employees in 1999. He took NetZero public in September 1999 (Nasdaq:NZRO) and in September 2001 NetZero acquired Juno Online to create United Online. During his tenure as Chairman and CEO of United Online from 2001-2013, he delivered a string of nine consecutive years and 36 consecutive quarters of record adjusted ebitda and made United Online one of the most profitable internet companies in the USA. He executed the tax-free spinoff of FTD Companies from United Online on November 1, 2013 creating two independent public companies.

In the 20 years prior to NetZero/United Online, Mark was the Chairman and CEO of The Goldston Group, President and CEO of Einstein/Noah Bagel Corp., President of L.A. Gear, Principal of Odyssey Partners, Chief Marketing Officer of Reebok, President of Faberge USA, Inc. and V.P. of Worldwide Fragrance and Skincare Marketing for Revlon. When he was promoted to President of Faberge in 1986, he was at the age of 31 years old the youngest President of a major consumer products company in the USA at the time. At Reebok he was responsible for the creation of the Reebok Pump and at LA Gear he created the lighted shoe phenomenon with LA Lights.

Mark is one of America’s most accomplished inventors with 92 U.S. and Foreign patents on products ranging from inflatable pump athletic shoes to lighted shoes, energy return systems, spring-based athletic footwear systems, internet search and internet connectivity technologies, video caller ID, secure digital music storage, fitness equipment, etc.

Mark Goldston is also the author of a highly acclaimed business book entitled The Turnaround Prescription, Repositioning Troubled Companies and is an accomplished public speaker who has appeared on CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, Bloomberg TV and he has given commencement speeches at The Ohio State University and the USC Marshall School of Business.

He has received numerous awards including the “Most Admired Public CEO In Los Angeles” Award by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2009, the “Walt Disney Man of the Year Award” by the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Organization in 2007, the “Vince Lombardi Hall of Fame Award For Humanitarian Efforts” by the Boy Scouts of America; the prestigious 2005 “Schaffner Award” from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business, the “2004 International Entrepreneur of the Year” by UMKC Henry Bloch School of Business; The first-ever recipient of the Ohio State University “Young Professional Achievement Award” in 1993; “The Top Marketer in the USA” and a member of the “American Management Dream Team” by Business Month Magazine in 1989 and “Top Executives Under 40” by Crain’s New York Business in 1988 to name a few.

Mark holds an undergraduate B.S.B.A. Degree from The Ohio State University with a dual major in Marketing and Finance and an MBA (MM) Degree from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management with a dual major in Marketing and Finance. He is a Life Member of the Northwestern University Kellogg School Global Advisory Board and is a member of the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Dean’s Advisory Board and the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Board of Leaders.

Margery "Margie" Mendicino Harris

Margery (Margie) Harris is an accomplished leader, having worked in both industry and consulting leading Human Resource change initiatives. 

Ms. Harris joined Tellurian in 2017 to establish and lead the human resources function at Tellurian. She has held leadership positions at several large Fortune 500 companies including Apache Corporation where she held the position of Executive Vice President of Human Resources of Apache Corporation, Texas Genco, a wholesale electrical power generation company where she established the human resources group and served as an Executive Vice President. She also headed the human resources groups at Integrated Electrical Services, a national electrical contracting company and Santa Fe Snyder, an independent exploration and production company. Ms. Harris was a lead design consultant at Hewitt Associates focusing primarily on executive compensation, broad based compensation and benefit program design. Prior to her emphasis in Human Resources Management, she also held the position of financial controller for Continental Airlines and served in a commercial capacity with Shell Oil Company. 
She serves on the alumni board and the Dean’s advisory council of the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and serves as a Board of Director of the alumni board of The Ohio State University. Local Houston outreach includes her service on the Boards of the University of St. Thomas and the Sam Houston Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Ms. Harris is a frequent speaker at industry events and coaches and mentors professionals regarding their career goals.  She was recently appointed as an adjunct faculty member of the Mays School, at the University of Texas A&M.  

Ms. Harris holds a bachelor's degree with honors in finance from The Ohio State University. She also earned an MBA with concentrations in finance and marketing from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas. 

Lawrence "Larry" A. Hilsheimer | Member Since 2001

Larry joined Greif in May 2014 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Before joining Greif, Larry was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Prior to Scotts, Larry held a number of executive roles over six years at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, including Chief Financial Officer; this was after a 28 ½ year career at Deloitte & Touche, ending as a Vice Chairman.

Larry serves on the Board of Directors of IBP (NYSE) and Root Insurance Company. He has served on numerous civic and charitable boards and currently serves the community as a board member of Battelle for Kids and served on the finance and audit committees of The Ohio State University.

Larry is a graduate of Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He sits on the Dean’s Advisory Council at Fisher and served as a board member for The Ohio State University Alumni Association. He holds a law degree from Capital University Law School.

Helga S. Houston

John Hrusovsky

As president of JJH Consulting, a company he founded in 2006, John leads JJH's leadership, assurance, readiness and optimization services. His work builds on more than 35 years of experience in the IT and systems community, with a specialization in higher education.

Prior to JJH, John also founded Groundwork Group and was a partner with Accenture. He is recognized as a thought leader in the IT and higher education industries through his involvement with many clients and organizations, multiple speaking engagements and his newsletter. John and his wife, Bobbi, have three boys and splits its time between Ohio and California. The family established the Hrusovsky Family Internship Fund at Fisher to provide scholarships to Fisher students.

David Jacobs

As President and Chief Operating Officer of Oswald, David Jacobs is dedicated to leading Oswald, including strategic leadership of over 25 specialized practices and branch operations. A veteran of the insurance industry with more than 30 years of experience, Jacobs has developed many new markets for Oswald that provide more specialty products and services for clients while also managing executive interaction and strategy with key insurance markets. Jacobs also leads in the design and execution of Oswald’s multi-year strategic plans, across all markets and business units.

Jacobs began his insurance career in underwriting. He joined AIG in 1990 where he advanced to the position of Business Development of National Accounts and in 1997 was appointed Regional Vice President of AIG's Great Lakes Regional office in Cleveland. He joined Oswald in 2000 and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2006. He was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2008 and was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer in September 2011.

In partnership with the Oswald Board of Directors, Jacobs was responsible for the concept, design, and launch of Oswald's Branch strategy, driving revenue growth and expansion into six new geographic markets to expand business footprint. Further growth strategies included the building of global customer base that now serves over 30 global clients including Fortune 500 clients, and the completion of five major acquisitions over the recent decade including RCM&D and Unison Risk Advisors. He has specialized experience in leading Oswald’s captives management and alternative risk strategies.

Jacobs is an advocate for women's and minority business leadership initiatives. He led the company's first Diversity and Inclusion strategy including Taylor Oswald, a minority business enterprise dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion in the insurance sector. He is a founding sponsor of the Women's Leadership Council, which provides career pathing and leadership development.

Jacobs is past Chair of the Board of The MetroHealth Foundation and past President of Westfield Agents Association. He serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the PlayhouseSquare Foundation and is on the board of the American Red Cross, Northeast Ohio Region and Taylor Oswald. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business.