Partners: Izzy Schwab’s Legacy Is A ‘People-Customer-First’ Culture At D&H

‘Izzy was a giant in this industry,’ says Tusker CEO Matt Zafirovski. ‘His legacy lives on not just in [D&H Co-Presidents] Dan and Michael [Schwab]—who are hugely respected and important leaders—but in all of D&H with the people-customer- first culture he put in place.’

Matt Zafirovski, CEO of Chicago-based Tusker, No. 134 on the 2025 CRN Solution Provider 500, never met D&H Distributing Chairman Emeritus Izzy Schwab, who passed away this week, but he has seen first-hand the impact the distribution titan had on the “people-customer-first” culture at D&H.

“Izzy was a giant in this industry,” said Zafirovski. “His legacy lives on not just in [D&H Co-Presidents] Dan and Michael [Schwab]—who are hugely respected and important leaders—but in all of D&H with the people-customer-first culture he put in place. What D&H has been able to do to scale that people-customer-first culture is really extraordinary. It continues to pay off for customers like us at Tusker.”

Izzy (pictured above), who built D&H into an IT distribution powerhouse and implemented a much-heralded employee stock ownership plan at the company, died Jan. 28 of natural causes surrounded by his family. He was 90 years old.

Zafirovski said among D&H’s cultural strengths is that “there is always a person at the other end of the phone” and the distributor’s inside sales reps are “incredibly proactive at bringing us deals, promotions and pushing incentives to us. It feels like D&H puts the partner first. It’s a big deal for our sales reps to know that D&H is working with us to maximize the economics of the deal while still delivering an amazing price for the end user.”

Zafirovski said when companies get bigger, they often do not get better. D&H has defied those expectations by scaling its “people-customer-first” culture, he said. “D&H has worked with real intentionality to scale that culture,” he said.

Zafirovski said he sees first-hand the cultural difference the employee stock ownership plan has had on the D&H culture. Among the cultural characteristics he admires are Dan and Michael’s policy of meeting with every new D&H employee and welcoming employees to the employee stock ownership plan after 90 days. He also loves the D&H pizza with the co-president luncheons in which Dan and Michael ask employees what they don’t like and what can be improved. “They want to know what is wrong and how you can fix it,” he said. “That is how you scale culture. That is hard to do. Dan and Michael have found a way to continue to enrich the culture even as they have driven really extraordinary growth. I really admire what they have done. What a great story.”

Michael Haley, co-founder and chief business development officer at Edge Solutions, Alpharetta, Ga., said he is confident that Izzy’s cultural legacy will “live on” for multiple generations. “That culture is something to be very proud of,” he said. “I really believe the people at D&H wake up thinking what can I do to help Edge Solutions grow their business, not what is the forecast this month.”

Haley said when he first got a call from D&H some time ago attempting to win his business, he immediately “felt the warmth” of the company. “The No. 1 thing that hit me is that D&H has built a culture that aligns with the culture we were building at Edge Solutions,” he said. “It’s all about creating a culture and environment where people want to work as a team, work together, and are all about team success, which will eventually give you the financial success you are looking for. When you help others, the financial success will follow. That is what I see at D&H.”

Haley said his company’s relationship with D&H goes well beyond the business benefits. “It’s about the friendships I have with so many people at D&H,” he said. “There are many, many people in that organization that I or my family would reach out to for advice, counseling and help and I know they would be there for me.”

One example, Haley said, is a call he made to Dan Schwab on a Sunday for help in a crisis. “Dan picked the phone up on the first ring on his birthday just leaving church on the way to celebrate his birthday with his family and the advice he gave me helped me make such an important decision,” he said.

Steve Van Ginkel, senior vice president of partner alliances at North Sioux City, S. D.-based Sterling, the $1 billion-plus solution provider powerhouse, said Izzy instilled a “customer-first” approach in the business that has continued to thrive under Dan and Michael.

“Izzy brought to D&H an inward cultural view of the right way to do business,” said Van Ginkel. “D&H is unique in the industry in that they are not owned by a large corporation or private equity company. They don’t have to take a quarter-by-quarter approach, so their business is truly focused on helping their solution provider and OEM partners be operationally successful.”

Van Ginkel said he appreciates that he can reach out to Dan, Michael or anyone in the company on an “issue or opportunity” and get the same experience. “Service-level agreements and pricing are important, but at the end of the day people still do business with the people they like,” he said. “D&H lives that.”

Dan Parris, co-founder, executive vice president and general manager of Data Center Warehouse (DCW), Laguna Hills, Calif., No. 72 on the CRN Fast Growth 150, said the “people-first” culture built by Izzy has been “ingrained” into the company and nurtured by Dan and Michael. “They have just done a phenomenal job of keeping it alive,” he said. “They are the backbone of our Microsoft practice, and they were pivotal to us achieving year-over-year triple-digit growth with Microsoft in 2025.”

Parris said D&H continues to operate like a “family business” even though it is a $6 billion-plus company. “What that means is their customers are not just another number,” he said. “They take the time to get to know them and understand their needs and will always go above and beyond to help us be successful. I think what D&H brings to the table is very similar to what we feel at DCW, which is do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing isn’t the most profitable thing, but it is the right thing to do.”

Michael said his father’s greatest legacy is the “people-first” culture at the company, which has resulted in deep “customer intimacy” that continues to drive D&H to this day.

“Izzy always saw employees as our most valuable asset,” said Michael. “He always said, ‘Our balance sheet showed inventory, cash and accounts receivable, which are assets, but by far and away our No. 1 and primary asset is our people even though it didn’t show up on the balance sheet.’”

Izzy viewed employees as the force moving the business forward, solving problems and growing the business, said Michael. “When he started the ESOP [employee stock ownership plan] in 1998, he was full throttle on it,” said Michael. “Those shares in the company were given to employees. That was his way of being a privately held company but giving the employees something definitive beyond their compensation, bonuses and 401k for their hard work. Thousands of people have seen that benefit come to life over that 28-year period. It’s pretty remarkable.”

Izzy used to quote Ben Franklin at the annual ESOP meeting, said Michael: “’There is an old adage that if you take care of your shop your shop will take care of you,’” he would say. He was also adamant about the company having exceptional employee benefits like “we would want for our own families.”

The employee stock ownership plan has provided a shift in the employee mindset in going the “extra mile” for the solution provider partner or OEMs, said Michael. “It has really resulted in employees leaning in a bit more and caring a bit more,” he said. “It’s not just a job. It’s a career where you control your own destiny and success and the ESOP is there to reward you for that hard work.”

Michael said Izzy and the management team he put in place deserve “100 percent of the credit” for putting D&H on the right trajectory. “They put in place the important priorities that an organization could aspire to,” he said. “Dan and I took what they put in place and ran with it. That created the opportunity for Dan and I to enhance all the goodness they envisioned.”

Michael also said the culture Izzy put in place sustained the business when the great recession hit in 2009. “The foundation that was built by Izzy was the Rock of Gibraltar,” he said. “We had the culture, the financial wherewithal and the support of the customers and manufacturers, and we were able to weather that economic storm. It was very much due to the organization that he had put in place.”

One of the most important lessons Michael said he learned working under Izzy was resilience. “There were moments in time where the business was tenous,” he said. “A lot of companies would have wound it down and called it quits. He always looked at everything as a glass-half-full mindset and created opportunities when others might have seen none. He had a mindset of digging in every day and working hard. He had that in his bones.”

Dan Schwab, for his part, said Izzy’s impact on the D&H culture is incalculable. “Izzy used to say people like doing business with people they like and when times get tough, strong relationships help you navigate those difficult times,” he said. “Izzy set the standard for how to treat our customers and each other. His belief in that was unshakable, and he held people accountable to ensure we exceeded expectations.”