Jeff Black Buys Back Company

MVDconnect’s motto is connecting business to people and working with telecom manufacturers like Avaya, Mitel and Polycom, it has been keeping true to its word. The company’s roots are in Ohio, where Jeff Black founded it back in 1992. Eleven years later Black sold MVDconnect to Chicago-based private equity firm SE Capital.

The MVDconnect provides full-service communications solutions that include data and networking services along with PBX telephone systems and maintenance, as well as wireless networking and mobile computing to business its customers.

Now 12 years after the sale, Black has once again acquired, or re-acquired his company. The purpose behind the original sale in 2003 was to have the capital necessary to grow the business through a series of acquisitions. The problem, according to Black is that “we didn’t do a lot of acquisitions.”

Although Black sold the company, he remained on board as its CEO and president, and now fully takes back the reins. Black said, “Now we’re going back to our 2002 plans. We’re hopeful to get our deals consummated in the next six to seven months.”

To accomplish this task he handed over the title of president to Jim Sipe, who was the company’s general manager. Sipe came to MVDconnect with 20 years of experience in the area of sales, marketing and business leadership. As the company’s president, along with Black, Sipe has already initiated acquisition dialogs with several companies in both New York and Chicago.

There will be a few changes along the way. MVDconnect currently has a facility in Orlando, FL which will soon be moved to Mason, FL. Black also has plans for a new headquarters which will be built on 18 acres in Blue Ash, OH. Construction on the new location should be completed over the next 18 months.

In addition to location changes, there will also be some changes with respect to the staff. Some of the current employees will be let go, but Black is expecting to hire enough people to initially have a staff of up to 50 people. The goal is that by the end of next year the total number of employees will exceed 100.

Considering all of the changes that he has seen in what he refers to as regular phone service, he sees this as a time of opportunity. Black has been the driving force behind MVD Connect for 23 years and in that time technology like Voice over IP (VoIP) has matured and continues to evolve. It has taken him over two decades, but it seems that Black is now once again on track.

Edited by Maurice Nagle