I have had the pleasure to work with Geoff throughout his career at Acuity Brands. He is a passionate, results oriented leader focused first and foremost on supporting both external customers and internal teammates. He has strong project management skills as he led several critical $10M-$35M revenue growth initiatives for our Architectural brands. He is experienced at utilizing LEAN tools to drive outcomes and solving problems. Most importantly he is an excellent team player, in managing his own staff and working cross-functionally in the organization.

Geoff is a thoughtful and motivating leader to his team. He is an ideal customer advocate. I hired him as a project manager and from there he grew to lead several PMs and then to lead technical sales for our architectural lighting business. He is a clear communicator, he knows how to organize and motivate a team, and knows how to get results that satisfy the internal business as well as external customers. He has a great and optimistic attitude in everything he approaches and has the respect of his peers. Geoff also is great in managing a changing/transforming environment and helps his teams navigate through a transformation seamlessly. I would highly recommend Geoff for any org that needs a motivating, strong leader that is focused on revenue and results while keeping the team highly motivated and productive.

I am fortunate to work for Geoff, a manager who is focused not only on growing the company’s bottom line, but also on his employees’ professional growth. Geoff understands that leadership is more than just delegating tasks. He takes a genuine interest in what drives you both personally and professionally and gives you the tools necessary to make you more successful. I consider myself very lucky to work for a manager like Geoff.

Geoff Koboldt is one of the most upbeat and energetic people and manager you can possibly have. He is always spinning problems as opportunities and providing you with a chance to improve on yourself and career. He provides clear instructions of what he expects and tools for you to achieve your goals. He is available and open to communicate and hear and share ideas. He is a pleasure to work with and for. He has this stunning and insatiable habit for learning and practicing what he learns and generously sharing it.

Geoff knows how to take an already fast-growing company and give it the edge it needs to stay on that path, sustainably: communication. When Geoff reached out to me to talk about my speaking at Acuity Brands’ annual internal ATS conference, he mentioned that he’d already reviewed my content, recommendations, and references from our common connections. The man does his homework. Nothing but the best for his team! During our pre-work sessions, Geoff gave me a great understanding of Acuity’s organizational matrix, along with some common challenges and illustrative examples. This prepared me to go in as a speaker and jump right in as though I’d been a secret remote member of the team the whole time. In the room with his team, I watched everyone interact with Geoff. Man, they love him. They respect him so much- and not just for his efficiency, sharp business sense, deep industry knowledge. They respect how he relates to them. How he acknowledges every side to a conflict and unravels tangled communication with skill. How he solves confusion with processes. How he advocates for them. How he cares. He cares. He cares. Geoff serves his team with heart. They laugh with him, and they cheer him on when he opens up first to break the ice. When I ask for examples of frustration from a group, it can be really hard to step up and talk about something that might show you or someone else in a negative light. Geoff led by example, sharing something he felt was an opportunity for improvement. Everyone else relaxed. They shared more. We got more accomplished. Geoff is also one of the first people I’d work with if building a dream organization, because I could literally put him anywhere and trust that he’d make people, processes, and products, successful. He gets the internal markers of success AND he understands branding and marketing outwards. He gets management and he gets sales. He gets production and he gets staffing. He gets people, most of all. Geoff understands his people. And he knows what they need to grow. He could have brought in any kind of speaker. But he evaluated the already-well-performing team of leaders and the service model they were already providing. This is a killer team. So the only thing to do when people already are performing well under his leadership, they’re already doing things well and saying things well, would be to help them to just Say Things Better. It takes a creative leader to see that. Geoff has the vision, the resources, and the respect from his team, his peers, and his senior leadership, to make it happen. I also appreciated how welcome he made me feel into the company space, at social events, and by secretly having the whole team sign the inside of a book for me that they gifted me at the end of the day. It was beyond thoughtful. But it was such a “Geoff Thing to Do.” I would welcome any chance to work with him again. Anytime.

Geoff as a professor was very challenging, knowledgeable, and fair. But his passion, commitment, and sincerity was why I was so engaged when he taught. Geoff inspired me to be better at life with very tangible techniques and measurable goals. Geoff, hurry up and get that book done, it will be a bestseller!

Geoff is one of the strongest operations leaders I have had the pleasure of working with. He was brand new to our industry when he joined Rose Tarlow Melrose House. He developed an understanding of the business very quickly. He listened and absorbed; never jumping in with suggestions or plans until he had a full understanding of the situation. He was meticulous at putting in place systems and metrics, and also developed a high level of accountability and ownership with his team. He was an amazing leader. He stepped into a very difficult situation with legacy employees who didn’t want to change and basically no systems in place. He lead by example; pulling the team along first, and pushing only when he had too. He then created his own systems using any resources he could pull together. And the results spoke for themselves. We saw massive improvements in on-time %, first time quality and customer satisfaction. I recommend Geoff highly. Any organization will be lucky to have him leading their team.

Geoff is a strong lean operations leader with a focus on continuous improvement. I have seen his key skills revolve around optimizing process and documentation. He also has experience with management performance evaluation systems and is adept at implementing the framework. Geoff would be a valuable member of teams looking for these key skills.

I had great success working with Geoff at Rose Tarlow Melrose House. Geoff’s fostering innovation helped me develop better, faster ways to do things. He takes the lead in setting new business directions, procedures and policies. Under his management, he helps me develop a clear understanding of what I will need to do differently as s result of changes in the organization. I admire his confidence to allow me the freedom to decide how I will accomplish our goals and resolve issues. I highly recommended Geoff for his leadership and his ability to empower employees.

You don’t ever forget leaders like Geoff Koboldt. Geoff is the poster child of delivering value and quality to customers. His ability to inspire others to get down to the roots of problems and fix them is exceptional and beyond expectations. His unique management performance system identifies where each employee’s strengths and weaknesses are so every employee knows exactly where to focus their energy as he quickly guides them from goodness to greatness. There is no doubt that he cares for each employee as if they were his own family. His level of emotional intelligence (EQ) is unmatched and when combined with his business intellect, it’s a knockout combination. I highly recommend Geoff to the nth degree.

As an accounting assistant at Bamboo Skateboards, I gained many meaningful insights into both the accounting profession and the business world thanks to the strong leadership of President Geoff Koboldt. As an international graduate-degree intern from China, I learned to organize my work properly, multi-task and manage my time efficiently, which enabled me to adapt to the American working environment quickly. This greatly prepared me for a smooth transition into an accounting career at Deloitte. I am confident Bamboo Skateboards has a promising future under the guidance of such a talented and hard working leader such as Geoff.

I met Geoff at the beginning of my career at General Motors. During that time I was able to capture a glimpse of what Geoff’s capabilities were and over the last 9 years I have witnessed his evolution and advancement in business. Geoff embodies and is a true “think outside of the box” professional. He is creative, resourceful, and resilient. It has been a pleasure to know him for all of these years as I hold a great deal of respect for him as a person, and as a professional.