AFW’s Jake Jabs to receive Mentorship Award at NEXT Conference

Bill McLoughlin //Editor in Chief//August 13, 2019

Jake Jabs

ARLINGTON, Texas – Furniture Today will recognize Jake Jabs, American Furniture Warehouse founder, president and CEO, with a Mentorship Award at its upcoming NEXT Conference here Sept. 25–27.

The legendary furniture retailer, who will also be inducted into the Home Furnishings Hall of Fame at October’s High Point Market, started AFW with one store in Denver in 1975 and has grown it into a 14-store operation that currently ranks 20th on Furniture Today’s Top 100 list.

Throughout his career, Jabs has been an active mentor and has received honorary doctorates from Montana State University in 2012 and the University of Colorado Denver in 2019. The 2019 award from the University of Colorado Denver was in recognition of Jabs’ “achievements as a business and community leader, his commitment to inspiring and educating the next generation of entrepreneurs” and his support of the university’s Denver Business School.

Both the University of Colorado Denver and Montana State have endowed business schools or centers in Jabs’ name. These include the University of Colorado Denver’s Business School Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship and Montana State’s Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

The self-taught businessman credits the success of American Furniture Warehouse to “the basic American philosophy of hard work, long hours, self-confidence, the courage to take risks and the desire to give value and service to every customer.”

An active member of the community and philanthropist, Jabs has lent his support to hundreds of non-profit organizations and has received hundreds of awards over the years.

In 2011, the Top 100 retailer provided the Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain organization with 7,000 square feet on the second floor of its Thornton store to help thousands of teenagers get ready to manage adult financial responsibilities by participating in JA Finance Park, presented by Transamerica.

“In addition to providing physical space for the park, AFW has donated furniture over the years and built an office for JA staff in 2016. AFW staff even clean the park every day,” Kristi Shaffer, executive vice president for JA said at the time. “These contributions enable students and schools to participate in this incredible program at no cost, compared to other JA offices who have to charge participation fees.”

Jabs is a strong believer in financial responsibility. “Teaching financial responsibility to young people in today’s credit world is very important,” said Jabs of the Junior Achievement initiative. “All of us at AFW are happy to support JA and this important program.”

In 2018 Jabs became the first inductee into the newly created Arizona Home Furnishings Representative Assn. Hall of Fame and was presented with a check for $7,500 for his favorite charity, Easter Seals of Arizona.

In accepting the award, Jabs recounted his youth growing up in a small town, noting that when he went to his high school reunion, “I was the only one there. In our town, Third Street was the end of town. There was a ‘slow down’ and ‘resume speed’ on the same sign.”

The fourth of nine children, Jabs was born and raised in rural Montana, and his parents were immigrants from Russia and Poland who fled communism. Jabs’ credits his family for providing him a strong work ethic, a sense of family, a love of music and a love of freedom we have in America. In fact, this longtime musician’s entrepreneurial career began by teaching guitar and starting a music store in Bozeman, Mont. He started to add furniture to his music store and determined everybody needed furniture and not a guitar.

Jabs remains an active musician and often entertains industry audiences at furniture events across the country.

For conference information, agenda and to register, visit www.pbmnext.com.