But after graduating with honors from Princeton University in 1987 with a degree in architecture, Swartz decided that building businesses was his real calling in life. It was something that was in his family's blood.
"My father had been in marketing. Various family members ran businesses from selling cars to candies. So I have always been around selling and promoting and the designs that go with those activities. But what I enjoy best is the business world's fast pace, he said.
Swartz began his advertising career at Anderson & Lembke in New York, now part of McCann-Erickson. He spent nine years with the agency, forming strategic and creative solutions for worldwide clients such as Agfa, Dow Chemical and Digital, as well as opening A&L's European headquarters in Amsterdam.
In 1997, he joined O&M's team in New York handling the global IBM account before landing the job of director, IBM brand services for Greater China in early 2001.
"The biggest difference between New York and China was that in the former I was working on the software part only. In China, it was more challenging; I had to oversee all of IBM's communications development, from software and hardware to services, Swartz said.
In his new role as the head of O&M Beijing, Swartz' brief has become even more challenging.
"I am still looking after IBM, but I have to oversee the development of all our other client brands as well. I also have to develop the office so that it is in the optimum position to take advantage of opportunities that come with China's membership in the WTO, he said.
But despite his life-long focus on building businesses, Swartz has not forgotten his Princeton days, still taking time out to be part of a jury conducting graduate architecture design reviews at Yale University.
