MAN OF THE YEAR

member photo

Larry H. Jacobs

Title: President, Chief Executive Officer
Industry: Buttons
Type of Organization: Button Manufacturing
Major Product/Service: Producing and distributing a variety of buttons including all natural buttons, bio-tech, fire retardant melamine, genuine leather buttons, green line, handmade buttons, logo mania, metal and plated, military, novelty, shirt buttons, super durable, swimwear collection, tailored clothing buttons and trouser buttons
Expertise: Mr. Jacobs has 65 years experience. He oversees all operations of the company. He is involved with the financial aspects of the company, marketing and promotions, employee interaction and the sales team. He interacts with accounting and legal experts, develops new and different button style products and visits other button factories internationally. Mr. Jacobs personally calls on customers and attends trade shows to keep up with changing products lines. He was responsible for opening a sales and marketing office in Hong Kong over 35 years ago. He is responsible for marketing and networking.
Geographic Area of Distribution: International
Affiliations: Founder and Former First President, American Manufacturing Button Association; American Apparel Association; Arbitrator, American Arbitration Association
University/Degree: Some College
Born: February 7, Brooklyn, New York
Hobbies/Sports: Family activities, old cars, gardening, parasailing, volunteering
Spouse: Pearl (deceased)
Children: 3 daughters
Work History: Mr. Jacobs began his career at Emsig in the factory, holding numerous positions including serving in the accounting office for a year, serving in the administration department for several years, then transferring to sales to get a feel for that aspect of the industry. He was promoted to Vice-President, and 25 years later to President.
Honors & Awards: Pollution Prevention Award, New York State Governor, 1996; Business is celebrating 91 years of being in business in 2019; They are celebrating 75 years of selling military buttons
Published Works: Featured, "World's Greatest" t.v. show
Career Accomplishments: In addition to the New York location, Mr. Jacobs has developed additional locations in Connecticut, Hong Kong, Shanghai, China, New Delhi, India, Santiago and San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic and Central America. The Connecticut office is over 100,000 square feet and is both a large manufacturing plant and sales office. The locations in China and New Delhi are also manufacturing plants. The other locations out of the U.S. are sales offices only and there are additional sales offices throughout the U.S. Mr. Jacobs travels to all of these locations, recently making his 93rd trip to the Orient. This has enhanced the company's international reputation, and all locations are operated with the same ethical and moral standards that they adhere to in the U.S. Emsig sells approximately 40 million buttons weekly for manufacturers worldwide, in addition to the military buttons produced for the U.S. Armed Services, which they have sold to them for the past 74 years. They are dedicated to the safety of the environment and the well-being of their employees. The Connecticut warehouse has made great strides in going green by upgrading their electrical system, cutting their electrical use in half (from 2 million to 1 million kilowatt hours) and running on a lean-manufacturing management operational program that no other button manufacturer has done. They have also introduced the world's first 100% recycled product line, comprised of over 50,000 pounds of former waste materials. They also created an "unbreakable button" named the Super-Durable® button which is the leader in this product. When people ask Mr. Jacobs how they can pay him back, his response is: "If you are ever in a position to help someone else that is in need; help them." And that is how they will pay him back.