Jacobs’ love for investing yields high return for Fisher students

By Margaret Farnham
Fisher College of Business

David C. Jacobs began plotting his career path early in high school: It would begin at Ohio State with a degree in finance and marketing before continuing on Wall Street as a stockbroker. 

“It didn’t quite work out as planned,” he said. “But my time at Ohio State afforded me the opportunity to pivot quickly into a different industry all together.” 

That industry was insurance, where Jacobs (BSBA ’84) spent more than 35 years building successful teams, growing his companies’ revenue and expanding into new markets and products.

And while he never made it to the trading floor, Jacobs never lost interest in investing. Throughout his career, the former president and COO of Oswald Companies continued to invest in people, real estate and his beloved alma mater.

Most recently, Jacobs and his wife, Brenda (BS ’85), helped establish the Jacobs Family Business Lab at Fisher, a new hands-on learning space designed to provide students with practical knowledge in investments, artificial intelligence, innovation and emerging business technologies. 

Located on the first floor of Mason Hall, the lab includes 30 Bloomberg terminals where students can monitor and analyze real-time market data. 

“Bloomberg gives students pursuing careers on Wall Street — in investment banking, institutional asset management and wealth management — a significant competitive advantage,” said Matt Sheridan, senior lecturer in finance and the Bloomberg lab director. “It is the most powerful investment tool in the world and is leveraged by financial professionals to access market data, analyze securities, conduct research and make investment decisions. More than 300,000 professionals use Bloomberg terminals as an integral part of their daily work.”

Prior to the lab’s dedication in September, students had access to just 12 terminals in a space that didn’t allow room for instruction.

“Although the college has several computer labs, none are designed as dynamic, interactive teaching spaces,” said Sheridan. “The Jacobs Lab is filling this important gap by creating a highly engaging classroom environment that allows students to learn by doing, interact with professional financial tools and develop skills that directly translate to the workplace. Most importantly, this experience has the potential to make a meaningful difference in the educational and professional lives of our students.”

Making a difference and increasing the job potential for Fisher students is what Jacobs and his wife wanted for the lab that bears their name.

“I hope that it can be transformational for the students,” said Jacobs, who has been deeply committed to the college as a speaker in the classroom and a member of the Alumni Board and Dean’s Advisory Council.

“Students coming out of Fisher are some of the top in the country,” he said. 

A first-generation student from the small village of Fredericktown, Ohio, Jacobs enrolled at Ohio State during a time when just about any Ohio student could apply and get accepted. Today, the stakes are higher, and the competition is more intense.

“It’s a different type of student today,” he said. “I hope the lab can help them clarify the path they want to take.” 

Jacobs’ own path took him from Ohio State to Nashville and eventually Cleveland. He never did make it to New York City. 

His plans changed when he met his future wife, Brenda Plummer, while they were students on campus. She was studying radiological technology and planned to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Jacobs had already graduated and followed her there.

“I needed a job and ended up getting into the insurance business,” he said. “My boss who interviewed me was from Illinois and loved the Big Ten, but Tennessee was SEC country. He saw that I went to Ohio State and gave me a job.”

“I always say that I got hired because of Ohio State.”

For the next five years, Jacobs served as senior casualty underwriter for CNA Insurance before moving to Cleveland and becoming a regional vice president at AIG. 

“My next job was going to be in New York,” he said. “At the time, we had three kids and I didn’t want to raise my kids in Manhattan, so we decided to stay in Cleveland.”

The Jacobs reside in the Bay Village suburb and now have four grown children. 

At AIG, Jacobs managed a staff of 200 and grew premiums in the region from $400 million to $900 million. He and a partner eventually left AIG in 2000 to work for Oswald, an insurance brokerage firm. 

“They were small and couldn’t afford us, so they paid us in stock,” he said. “Oswald was considered a generalist, writing insurance for anyone who needed it. We didn’t really create specialties. So, when I came in we created industry verticals, from construction to real estate to individual high net worth to private equity. Manufacturing was a big sector. We built the company around specialties and that’s when it took off.”

Named the company’s president and COO in 2011, Jacobs helped grow Oswald from its one office in Cleveland to multiple branches throughout the United States and ultimately turned it into an international operation. In addition, he increased the employee base from 60 to 900 by strengthening its recruiting efforts.

Jacobs retired from the company in 2022 but continues to sit on the board, as well as the board of the company’s partner firm Taylor Oswald. He also serves as a co-owner, along with his two sons, of a real estate company called 4C Development.

“We’re investing in Northeast Ohio, and our focus is habitational and commercial development,” he said. “It’s very different and we’re learning as we go, but it’s fun. It’s kept me active and engaged.”

When the family moved to Cleveland, Jacobs joined Fisher’s Alumni Board and four years ago became a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council. That’s when he learned about the need for a larger business lab.

“The lab was something that piqued my interest because I wanted to do something to give back to the students,” he said. “Brenda and I wanted our gift to be educationally based.”

The addition of the Bloomberg terminals was the icing on the cake. 

“That’s exciting to me, because I’ve always had an interest on the investment side,” he said. “That piqued my interest even more, and when they said that it would help with Fisher’s visibility at a national level, I felt this was something we needed to do.”

Sheridan said the new state-of-the-art terminals will bring finance to life for students. 

“A hands-on environment will allow me to move beyond teaching students about financial data and instead have them actively use it to analyze markets, evaluate investments and solve real-world financial problems,” said Sheridan, who teaches undergraduates and students in the Specialized Master of Finance program.

Professors across all departments and disciplines can use the lab for instruction.

“Because it is more of a business lab, it makes us unique,” said Sheridan. “It puts us at a much higher tier in terms of competing with top business schools.”

The lab’s new terminals and spacious interior are set apart by glass walls and a digital stock ticker that scrolls around the room’s exterior. Sheridan believes the lab will be a focal point for students, calling it “one of the most special places” on campus.

“I’m hoping it will be a springboard for students, whether it’s in finance or AI, and that it helps them develop new ideas,” said Jacobs, who spent the majority of his student days in a traditional classroom.

He marvels at the experiential opportunities afforded Fisher students today, and he encourages them to take advantage of everything from study abroad and networking opportunities to clubs and mentoring relationships. 

“Having students put into live settings and working on ‘real-world’ projects certainly adds to the Fisher experience,” said Jacobs. “Potential recruiters will look at how well rounded students are in preparing themselves. Seeing a student self-motivated by immersing themselves in all these resources is just as important as what is accomplished in the classroom.”

The new lab is a blueprint for the direction in which Fisher is headed, said Aravind Chandrasekaran, interim dean and John W. Berry, Sr. Chair in Business.

“When we talk about disrupting business education in ways that meet the needs of our students and workforce development, the Jacobs Family Lab is proof of that concept,” he said. “It’s a space that’s adaptable and designed to meet the needs of how today’s students want ― and need ― to learn. Thanks to Dave and Brenda’s incredible dedication and generosity, we’re excited to take a giant step forward in our shared goal of creating a holistic educational experience that’s focused on the future of business.”

The son of a pipe fitter and school guidance counselor, Jacobs said he learned the importance of philanthropy from his father, a World War II veteran who worked for Columbia Gas for more than 40 years. 

“He was always involved in giving back, and it’s where I learned the value of that,” he said. “I always felt like when I would have the means I would give back to Ohio State. I met my wife there, and I was very involved with the university. I also felt like they had a critical role in launching my business. If not for Ohio State, I might not have gotten that first job.”