Testimonials

Michael made a real impact on Lime’s objective of creating sustainable value in our company. His range of competencies crosses all organizational disciplines where he applies analytical capabilities that are both quantitative and qualitative. This resulted in the development and implementation of plans that were adopted and real change which has been institutionalized. Michael’s style is conducive to the effective collaboration of senior management and other critical employees, where he is able to supplement company talent and provide coaching where needed. I recommend Michael’s services to company’s looking for sustainable value creation through the acquisition, growth and exit stages of their portfolio companies.

Partha is a highly effective and accomplished business leader, a savvy and strategic thinker, and a true gentleman. He’s skilled at translating vision and strategy into actionable business initiatives. An engaging leader who leads by example and is willing to be hands-on to achieve the desired business results. I appreciate his extensive strategy and technology knowledge and understanding of best practices complimented by his strong business acumen. Partha is not only a competent colleague, but he is also a first-class team player with a great sense of humor. He is highly appreciated by his employees and teams, and his integrity is outstanding. Not very often in business to you find a man like Partha. He engages to solve and understand issues while driving at the end resolve, yet always keeps people in mind.

I am writing this letter of recommendation for Michael Jakolat to enhance your business investments through thoughtful, highly disciplined, and sustainable value creation consultation. For the past year, Michael worked with our company as a consultant, improving our performance and strengthening our connection with the company’s VC and PE investors.  Michael’s depth of knowledge and expertise has provided great value both analytically and strategically.  While supplementing and coaching our senior and critical staff members, Michael was nothing but knowledgeable, professional, and respectful. He continues to work with me and the company during our continued growth.  I and the senior team expect to leverage Michael’s knowledge and expertise through an exit transaction.

Michael’s advice as both strategic and tactical driven consultation has allowed our organization to be laser focused in achieving increased steady-state EBITDA and predictable EBITDA growth, and in developing measurable indicators to sustain our long-term business vision. He has assisted me in institutionalizing key processes driving confidence in key go-to-market strategies.

I can assure you that Michael will enhance your business investments and create a culture of growth attainability and operational efficiency. He is dedicated to his customers and has spent many long hours in our office helping us to work out the details of complex business plans. He has given our company invaluable resources to achieve success and has made me a better executive and person.

During 2005 and 2006, Michael guided me and my family owned company through one of the most difficult and potentially devastating periods in our company’s history.  Without their experienced, steadfast guidance and active involvement, I am certain we would have closed our doors like so many around us in our industry.  Michael worked closely with me and the Rima senior management team for over a year to resolve a number of issues that had either damaged our profitability or were otherwise threatening our viability.  With their guidance and participation, the Rima senior management team made difficult but long-term changes and improvements both within the company and between Rima and its customers.  The company’s financial performance has been restored and continues to be strong.

I highly recommend that any business person finding themselves in a difficult predicament set aside their ego and seriously consider the services and counsel of Michael.  I will be forever grateful for his steadfast counsel and contributions.

I’ve had the good fortune to work with Mike for nearly 15 years.  We first worked together as members of a team assembled to lead the revitalization of companies that had suffered from ineffective leadership, poor operational execution and “upside-down” balance sheets, to being of critical importance to me and others as we worked to resurrect and build a national outpatient clinical services company.

Michael is trusted partner and expert in understanding the accounting behind a company’s operations.  By this I mean the essence of what the numbers are saying: what does it cost to manufacture a product or provide a service?  What customers are generating true contribution margin?  What are the choke points affecting performance and how can departments, processes and operations be disaggregated and reassembled so that they, collectively, deliver the support necessary to exceed customers’ satisfaction, execute the business plan and maximize RONA?

Michael’s work has resulted in companies in crisis being turned around, refinanced and put on a path to sustained profitability.  As the lead person asked to help with a critical financing of highly distressed company I led, Michael’s work resulted in the company securing $25 million of debt and equity financing at the nadir of the financial crisis.  This capital infusion allowed us to recapitalize and invest in the people and systems necessary to execute our plan, which resulted in a modest regional player threatened with liquidation to become the third largest national provider in the country of a particular suite of healthcare services.

Mike’s a very quick study – one must be in working to evaluate a company’s situation, from underperforming to start-up, from a company performing adequately to one its new owners expect to scale.  As a member of the team assigned to provide support to company leadership and/or its owners, Mike’s critical thinking, his ability to test and provide information to support executable plans, and to instill trust in people who work with and for him across the organization, have been fundamental to our success.

Working with Madelon was a great experience on all fronts. As the major driver in recruiting efforts for my team and the rest of the company, Madelon demonstrated skill, patience, and very personal communication style in her work. She developed great rapport with our candidates and clearly demonstrated our core values. Madelon is a high quality person who is a tremendous value add to any team.

Working with Madelon was a pleasure. The thing that sets Madelon a part from others is how genuinely personable she is and how deep in to the field she is able to go to accomplish her goals. Working with Madelon in recruitment activity, Madelon’s honest and genuine approach made her clearly build a good rapport with her candidates. Her drive to find the correct answer in the best way possible helped set her far beyond my expectations, and clearly was able to join the needs of the business with her recruitment activity.

Madelon also worked with me in refining various processes during recruitment. She was very quick to relate blended candidate data to the company’s situation to be able to rapidly change our process. The collaborative process was very effective and she was always seeking to solve the problem at its core, not relenting until we did.

Madelon’s personality, genuinity, drive, and deeper insight in her field is one that I greatly appreciated while working with her. Anyone who has the opportunity to work with her would do well to utilize her to her fullest talents.

Software Engineer and Code Craftsman, with a side of Mentorship, Leadership, and Architecture

Partha and I worked together as part of the senior leadership team at Joerns Healthcare. Partha has the rare combination of strategic thinking, superior execution, and operational excellence. Partha's ability to blend technology and business knowledge along with a collaborative style is very powerful. The CIO position is one of the toughest executive positions, as everyone wants something and they want it yesterday. I admire Partha’s flexibility, charm, technology smarts and overall discipline to stay the course if need be. He demonstrated a high level of effectiveness particularly when involved in critical projects like Salesforce CRM and SAP ERP. I would jump at the chance to work with Partha again. Not only is Partha a quality CIO, but he is a great person.

I’ve had the pleasure to know Partha for several years, but most recently, he was hired at Joerns Healthcare to help the company transition from a division within a parent company to a standalone enterprise. He successfully developed and implemented a systems infrastructure (and team) to support the needs of the business today and for its expected future growth. He accomplished this within the most aggressive timeframes and budget that I’ve experienced. Even more impressive was the manner in which he achieved this goal. His leadership style is confident, measured, and respectful. He won’t ask anyone to do something that he isn’t willing/ready to do himself. In fact, he is a CIO that will still write code when the team needs it. I’m flattered to write a recommendation for Partha as I have greatly enjoyed my time working with him.

I have the pleasure to be working with Partha at the Middleby Corporation. Partha always reflects a high sense of professionalism in anything he deals with; every interaction with him has been very engaging whether it be a long term business strategy, a new project he is working on or a personal friendly matter; His interpersonal skills & unique vision are a continuous inspiration to everyone around him.

After working closely with Partha for 14 years, what impressed me most was his limitless passion for the work we did and the teams he inspired. After initially doing some project work for our company, I knew it would be essential that Partha join our team. It was one of my smartest decisions! Partha has excelled in all aspects of his work and more importantly has been a trusted friend and advisor. I would not hesitate to join any team Partha was affiliated with.

I had the pleasure of being recruited by Madelon at The Nerdery. She is an ardent talent advocate. She recognized in me my passion for technology and fostered an opportunity for me to join The Nerdery. Every time I had an issue or a question, she made me feel as if nothing was more important to her than helping me even though she’s one of the busiest persons I know. Madelon truly has amazing organizational skills. Above all, having Madelon as a colleague taught me how to be a better, more dedicated professional. Her talents will be a great addition to any company lucky enough to hire her.

Partha is a true visionary capable of tackling complex business challenges where others have failed. I worked with Partha at Sunrise Medical for more than seven years, and I can vouch for his creativity, leadership and exceptional ability to bring cross functional teams together and lead them towards the achievement of a shared goal. He is a well-grounded, supportive leader, who consistently accomplishes far beyond even the highest expectations. A top-notch driven professional, capable of personally taking on the toughest projects while simultaneously managing other responsibilities and business priorities. He is an open communicator and an excellent manager able to motivate and direct staff in a friendly and highly productive manner. I would relish the opportunity to work for him again in the future.

Partha is a tremendously talented leader who brings a great amount of creativity to the initiatives he leads. He is an expert in strategic planning and operational execution. He crafts a clear vision and measurable objectives and holds himself and others accountable to their commitments. He is the type of leader CEOs want on their teams because he gets results, and his teams and colleagues hold him in high regard. I have found Partha to be a first class individual both personally and professionally, and am fortunate to know him.

I highly recommend Partha as a visionary executive. We worked directly together a few years ago so I saw firsthand his leadership skills and ability to affect positive change in an organization. It is a rare combination to be able to continue to be on the leading edge and push for new changes yet keep the company grounded and not overreach.