PPB June 2018

Dav i d K l a t t L iving in Clearwater, Florida, David A. Klatt, Jr. and his family find plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. He and his wife, Sophie, relish time with their six-year-old son, Trey, and their two puppies, Aioli and Bailey. They are a busy family—Sophie runs a successful business and Trey is highly involved with school, friends and sports. When he has down time, Klatt plays golf with Trey and his father, grills on his Big Green Egg and spends time out on the family boat. But these days, Klatt is having to work a bit harder to carve out that all-important family time in his packed schedule. In February, Klatt joined Tampa-based supplier BIC Graphic USA as its new CEO, and he has ambitious goals for himself and the company. “I want our customers to hold up BIC Graphic USA as their best-in-class supplier,” explains Klatt. “Superior service, cost, speed, flexibility and innovation are how I would like us to be defined. Sales and profit dollars are obviously part of measuring one’s success, but to me it’s more about leaving a great legacy with the business and in the industry.” With his illustrious career and personal drive, Klatt is well positioned to do just that. In fact, in the 1990s Klatt was part of the DEWALT team that built the power tool business from scratch to over $1 billion in sales. The successful launch of the DEWALT brand—one of the highlights of his career to this day—gave him appreciation for the power of promotional products as a key component of successful marketing. As a teenager, Klatt’s expertise was in pizza making, not marketing. His mother owned an Italian restaurant in his hometown outside of Buffalo, New York, and Klatt and his three brothers spent weekends and summers spinning pizzas. He attended LeMoyne College in Syracuse while working full-time for the large farm co-op Agway. While deciding on a course of study, he weighed his options. “Being a banker like my dad seemed too boring, and running my mom’s restaurant would have been way too hard,” he laughs. “I thought sales and marketing would be a good match for my skills.” After graduation, Klatt accepted a position with Black & Decker, where his day-to-day duties included calling on independent hardware stores. “That is when I learned the value of mom- and-pop shops and how doing a good job for themmakes you part of the family,” he says. As his responsibilities expanded, he went on to pursue his MBA at Georgetown University. Making His Mark After just a few months as BIC Graphic USA’s new CEO, David Klatt is making an impact. by Terry Ramsay Klatt has ambitious goals for service improvement and workflow integration at supplier BIC Graphic USA. “I had great mentors who put me inmy place and taught me how important it is to earn respect and to deservedly shift credit to the team. Basically, I had to learn to lead versus manage.” 22 | JUNE 2018 | INNOVATE