Orange in the Family: Two Generations of Whitman Alumni Lead Family-Owned Business

For David Gelles ’76 and Matthew Gelles ’10, business is in their blood and so is Syracuse Orange. The father/son duo leads NEFCO, the construction supply company that David founded in 1981. And while they have much in common — like growing up in an entrepreneurial family with strong Syracuse connections — they each bring a different approach that has enabled their family-owned business to thrive over decades.

David’s mother, Phyllis Silver, and her brothers all graduated from Syracuse University in the 1950s. Her family owned a liquor distribution business. David’s father’s family also was in the distribution business, but they handled plumbing supplies. Growing up, David worked in various capacities in both family enterprises. 

David majored in accounting at what was then the College of Business Administration. He also played freshman basketball and enjoyed attending numerous Syracuse sporting events during college and after, especially the Big East basketball tournament. A few years after graduation, David and his father began looking for a new opportunity. They bought a small industrial fastener business. That business became NEFCO. 

“AN EASY CHOICE”

When it came time to develop the company branding, David says, “It was an easy choice. When I started the company back in 1981, we picked blue and orange, [with] orange as the predominant color. It was just a natural thing. The loyalty to Syracuse is based around the friendships that I built when I was at school, and that grew throughout the years.”

That loyalty is hereditary. As a child, Matthew enjoyed going to Syracuse sporting events and meeting his father’s friends. David says he attended almost every Big East men’s basketball tournament, except one year when the championship was on the day Matthew was born. The team won it all that year, and David jokes that he was happy Matthew held off coming into the world until after the game.

What Matthew was less sure of, however, was whether he would follow in his father’s footsteps to NEFCO. Like his father, he’d grown up working in the business, but he says, “Growing up, you dream of becoming an NBA player or an astronaut, so as a young kid, I would ask myself, ‘Is going into the construction supply industry for me?’” 

As Matthew got closer to college, he realized that going into the family business at NEFCO was an amazing opportunity. To that end, he double majored in supply chain management, and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at the Whitman School with the idea that he could apply what he was learning to the family business.

“Focusing my education around NEFCO’s industry gave me the chance to decide if joining the family business was the right thing for me. And then it just made all the sense in the world,” Matthew says.

While David took basic business classes like accounting, marketing and logistics, he remarks that when Matthew was at Whitman more than 30 years later, the offerings were more specialized. Matthew recalls having conversations with his dad and grandfather over holiday dinners about how to apply what he was learning in his classes. 

DREAMING AND PLANNING

When Matthew arrived on campus in 2006, NEFCO had grown steadily with three locations and a fourth about to open. There were around 50 employees. In 2010, he joined NEFCO full time, with plans for the next phase of the company. He created an ambitious strategic plan to double the business every five years with the hopes of building a $1 billion business. 

“I thought he always was a dreamer,” David says, “but it turned out he had a real plan, and his business acumen is way above mine.” Today, NEFCO has more than a thousand employees with 41 locations across the United States. In 2023, Matthew was awarded the ’CUSE50 award, which recognizes the 50 fastest-growing businesses owned or run by Syracuse alumni.

What hasn’t changed is the company’s focus. David says, “We’ve stuck with what we’re really good at, as opposed to being a very broad-based construction supply company. We’ve stayed in our lane, and that’s something that I grew up on: Do what you do best, and be the best at it.”

In 2022, David stepped down as president and CEO, and Matthew took over, along with David’s son-in-law Ron Cipriano as executive vice president and chief operating officer. David’s current role is executive chairman (“DG the EC,” he quips). David remains deeply involved in the company’s day-to-day operations, while Matthew directs the strategy.

As the company grows, they both are working to keep the atmosphere of a family-owned business. Matthew’s older sister, Stefanie Gelles Ochs, who graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 2006, has worked at NEFCO throughout the years. Now her husband, David Ochs, works in the business, helping lead NEFCO’s e-commerce strategy. 

David Gelles has seven grandchildren, at least one of whom is interested in carrying on the tradition. “I’m hoping that they’ll be the next generation that comes into the business and keeps building it,” he says. “I think there’ll be a substantial nationwide business here for them when they’re ready.”

By Suzi Morales