DSF: Tell us about yourself, family information.
ME: My father was a GE veteran, so that meant we moved around quite a bit, but we ended up settling in Northern California, so I consider that part of the country home. I have two younger sisters who, along with my father, still live in Northern California. We had a great upbringing, moving every two or three years until we got to Northern California when I was in high school. Then, I decided to go to the University of Idaho from there.
I also have been married for 25 years, to a woman named Lori, that I met at the University of Idaho. We have four great kids, an 18 year old daughter, Erin, a 16 year old son, Andrew, a 14 year old daughter, Caroline, and an 11 year old son, Patrick, and three dogs.
DSF: What made you go to Idaho, and what was your degree in?
ME: I was after a traditional college experience, and wasn’t enamored by the big California schools. I was also interested in running track in college. I was recruited to the University of Idaho, as well as other schools, as a pole vaulter. I wanted a medium sized school in a small college town, and the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho really provided that.
One of the significant attractions was the Fraternity system, which obviously included the Delta Sig house. During the first days there, I knew nobody at the University of Idaho. I showed up knowing absolutely nobody.
I ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
DSF: What made you join Delta Sig?
ME: I went through rush, settled on Delta Sig, and felt very comfortable with the guys and the culture of the house. Coming in not knowing anybody, when you pledge you have 70 brothers with a very strong pledge class and I just felt accepted right away, and the Fraternity was a very important part of the university experience for me.
DSF: Did you hold any leadership positions in the chapter?
ME: Let me think about that for a second. I think I was the pledge class vice president, and I know I was the social chairman my senior year. The first two years I was there, I was heavily involved in track. I broke my wrist two years in a row, so I didn’t come back for my junior year. Then I got a job off campus, and was involved across campus, so I had a pretty full slate of things going on. I took on some working roles within the house, and those were great.
DSF: Talk about your career path before you got to Ikon?
ME: In summary, I spent 22 years at GE. I interviewed at GE behind my father’s back. I interviewed with Xerox, IBM and Boeing, received offers from all of them, and chose GE because I was interested in their entry level training program. So, I joined GE, and came up through the ranks in sales and marketing assignments.
Ultimately I moved to the Engineering Plastics business in GE in the early 90s where I was in that business for 8 years. I lived and worked in Europe twice and lived in Asia for a while, so in the Plastics business, I really got to see the world.
I hit the chairman’s screen at that point, a guy named Jack Welch, and was appointed a company officer at 39, was appointed a Sr. VP at 42 running the lighting business. I was working directly for Welch, so I was one of 15 or so Sr. VPs at that time, and had a terrific run. I often found myself in turnaround situations in some of the more mature business areas of GE, replacing people who had been let go.
When I became a Sr. VP at GE, reporting directly to the Chairman, I essentially realized that my career there was over. There was only one job left, and I wasn’t going to get that job. I had terrific friends and great experiences, and I was really enjoying myself, but I thought about taking that experience and putting it to use for a company that I could run myself.
At the same time I was thinking like this, I was getting contacted by headhunters, and the Ikon opportunity really interested me. It was a company that had a global reach, was in the early stages of an important transformation, and in a really tough industry. I was intrigued by the challenges.
I decided at 44 that it was time for me to leave GE and at 44 I became the Chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
DSF: Tell me a little more about Ikon and its business model.
ME: In a sentence, we are the world’s largest independent channel in the document management industry. We are involved in applying digital imaging technology produced by companies like Canon, Ricoh and HP, with world class document management software and applying integrated solutions to our customers. We have 525,000 customers around the world. We deal with the world’s largest companies down to the very small companies in North America and Europe.
The company has 25,000 employees around the world in 450 locations with revenues of $4.2 billion. We just celebrated the 10th year listed on the NY Stock Exchange and I rang the closing bell of Stock Exchange. It was my third time on stage. I opened it once, and closed it twice. However, every single time I have done it, our stock traded down, so of course I have caught lots of grief about that. It was really exciting though.
DSF: What do you do on a day to day basis?
ME: The interesting thing about being a CEO is that you drive your entire schedule. I have two roles. I am the Chairman of the Board, which means I help govern the company. I am also the CEO, which means I lead the company.
As Chairman of the Board, I work closely with the Board of Directors who are all independent – I am the only member of management on the board – but we work through our committees to make sure that we comply with all necessary regulations,and so we drive best practices in terms of corporate control and governance. We’re recognized as a great place to work, and have great compliance and governance marks.
In terms of running the company, I’m involved on a daily basis with our employees, our vendor partners and our customers.
My typical day starts between 6:30 and 7 in the morning, well actually a typical day starts at 5 when I get up, work out from 5:30 – 6, I’ll do e-mail at home from 6 – 6:30, and then hop in the car to go to the office. Then depending on the day, it could be business reviews all day, it could be flying out to one of our locations to conduct employee roundtables, customer meetings, etc. There’s really no typical day. The thing is, though, that your life is planned almost to the minute several months in advance. I can’t tell you what a typical day is, but what I can tell you that whatever it is, it is planned several months out.
Back to the stock exchange for a second, we also spend considerable time with our investors. I’ll meet with 150 investors one on one in the course of a year. We travel to Europe a couple times a year. We’re in Japan a couple times a year. Lots of moving parts, and it pays to have a sense of humor and a great family.
DSF: What did you get from your time in Delta Sigma Phi that has helped you in your career?
ME: One of the things I got out of Delta Sig was the confidence that comes from living with 60-70 guys. I had the great pleasure to spend four years with some incredibly bright guys who came from any number of backgrounds. These are guys who worked hard and who were very funny. You had to be fast. Whatever wit I possess today was honed in the four years in that house. If you couldn’t hold your own intellectually or from a wit perspective, these guys were fast and brutal. You really developed a fast mind. I learned to collaborate, to listen, to respect people from different backgrounds and with different points of view.
My experience at the Delta Sig house was a formative part in my life. My experience at the University of Idaho was a formative experience, and that experience was made much richer through my involvement in Delta Sigma Phi.
DSF: What would you say is one of the most important things to make sure your business succeed?
ME: Keep things very simple. It is very easy in this job to make the simple complex. We work very hard to make the complex simple. It’s amazing how difficult that is and how much time that takes. I think the ultimate in self confidence is to have the self confidence required to keep things simple. We try to keep things black and white.I have made thousands of mistakes, but ultimately, you have to have the confidence required to keep things simple.
DSF: What makes a good leader?
ME: Tremendous energy. The leader sets the pace. Whether that’s being the first in the office or the last to leave, or whether it’s just setting the cadence of the company, these jobs require tremendous energy. Great leaders have that.
The next thing is that leaders need to inspire others. They need to translate their energy in way that energizes other people. You have to be an effective communicator, which means you also need to be a good listener.
Thirdly is the ability to make the tough decisions – managerial or leadership courage. We’ve all hired people who were mistakes, and have gone into situations where there are tough decisions that need made. You need to be comfortable withthat.
Lastly, you need to be able to execute and deliver. You need to be able to put together a strategy and go do what you say you’re going to do.
DSF: What would you be doing if you weren’t CEO of Ikon?
ME: (Laughing) Probably ending a great PGA career, or playing backup guitar to Eric Clapton I suppose. I really have never thought about it. Trust me, everybody who knows me really well from college and as I’ve grown up are surprised I’ve been able to achieve what I have. I’ll hear from fraternity brothers and friends and my family can’t believe it either.
My fraternity brothers will tell you that I was an average student and a regular guy. I was just able to find the right opportunities and work hard, and applied average intelligence with a lot of effort to get where I am.
DSF: You are involved in some non-profit organizations in the limited spare time that you have. What makes you give your time to the United Way and the others?
ME: Well for me, it’s about the challenge. The United Way is an opportunity for me to participate in the community in a structured way, and so by joining the exec. Board of the UW here, I am able to give something back and to leverage my talents. I am now chairing the 2007 UW campaign in SE PA, so that will be interesting. We’ll be raising over $55 Million for the United Way.
As I approach 50 years old, I have realized that it can’t be all work. I am also on the Unisys board, which is another company going through some challenging times, and I thought I could help the board there. I serve on the audit and finance committees on that board.
I also plan lots of time with my family. I rarely come into the office on weekends. One of my sons loves movies, and we always see a movie Sunday nights. My otherson is a big tennis player, so he and I play tennis. I take my two daughters out to dinner one Friday night a month. You just find ways and things to do, but you just have to plan it.
DSF: What is a piece of advice that you would give to other brothers to be successful in what they’re doing?
ME: I would say to not be afraid of the difficult challenge, and ask yourself how YOU can make a difference. The assignments that other people don’t want because of the potential risk are the ones with actually the lowest risk, because there are less expectations. Ask yourself how YOU can make a difference right now.
Matt Espe resides in Newtown Square, PA with his wife, Lori, their four children, and three dogs.
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