As first reported in a Breaking News Alert, Bob Herzog, formerly the CEO of Bullet (asi/42424) and the COO of Polyconcept North America, has been appointed the new CEO of distributor Corporate Imaging Concepts (CIC, asi/168962). Herzog replaces Brian Abrams, who founded CIC 20 years ago. Going forward, Abrams will remain with the Chicago-area firm as executive chairman. He and his wife Patty are still the largest individual minority owners of CIC.

“Bob has an extraordinary operations background as well as extensive supply chain knowledge,” said Abrams, in an interview with Counselor. “Along with his experience with private equity, he was the candidate our board agreed was absolutely the right choice.”

The leadership transition is part of an agreement Abrams made with CIC’s latest equity partners, which acquired the distributor last year. According to Abrams, CIC conducted a CEO search for months and received strong interest from both distributor and supplier executives. “CIC is too stable to need what I think is my best talent – organizing chaos. CIC needs a professional manager and someone to advance and sell the software solutions we offer. Bob is the perfect person to lead us.”

Now that the search is complete, Abrams will concentrate on acquisition opportunities for CIC, while Herzog is tasked with running day-to-day operations. “With private equity behind us, we’re looking to accelerate our growth through acquisitions and organically,” said Abrams. “We have several deals that have been presented to us. We have one that’s close that we hope to have completed by this summer.”

Sales at CIC have increased by at least 20% each of the last five years, according to Abrams, buoyed by the firm’s technology solutions and innovations. “We’re doing better this year than the year before,” he said. “We’re about to announce some huge RFP wins. I see nothing but a bright future for our company. We’re on a great trajectory.”