JOHN M. JACK
T H E
O L Y M P I C
Vol. 103 No. 1 Jan 2015
JOHN M. JAC K
2015 Olympic Club President
C L U B
•
S A N
F R A N C I S C O
S
ome years ago, in San Francisco’s most illustrious natatorium, a young boy stood unnerved on a narrow ledge, three stories up. For comic relief from this otherwise terrifying situation, he wore an oversized sweatshirt to cushion the sting from a belly flop, should he hit the water wrong. “Jump!” his friends cried, and he leapt from the ledge, never imagining that one day he, a slightly daring but otherwise dutiful youth, might be a rule-enforcer over this same pool. John “JJ” Jack, The Olympic Club’s newest president, fondly recounts Club memories from his youth. “I was just a guest in those days but all my experiences were wonderful, impromptu times. We’d swim, eat, play basketball, or just do whatever.” President Jack, or “JJ” as he prefers, has humorous stories from his days as a gallivanting Club guest, but it’s easy to tell that he was more the hard-working and studious type as a kid. As testament, when JJ was a fifth grader, he joined San Francisco’s motley crew of paperboys, ensuring that Inner Sunset occupants received their news in a timely fashion. He grew up and worked around San Francisco most of his life, having gone to St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School and graduating from University of California Berkeley, where he and former Olympic Club President, David Bonelli, were fraternity brothers.
JJ ME E T YO UR NE W C L UB P R E S IDE N T
JOHN -M. JACK by Kelly Hook
4
Right: Jack with (from left) former president Dennis Murphy, Jack, City Clubhouse Manager Pam Andres and General Manager Pat Finlen at the 2014 Hike & Dip. Top left: The Jack family at home (left to right), son-in-law Brian Peters, Jenny, Lynnie, Susan and John. Photos on this page by Mike Mustacchi. Top right: Jack and his daughter Kendall, in Venice.
The Olympic Club | January 2015
J
“My first job out of college was as a bartender during San Francisco’s littleknown ‘Fern Bar Era.’ I was making lots of Irish Coffees at Lord Jim’s, which no longer exists, on the corner of Polk and Broadway,” he reminisced. “I was in no hurry to stop bartending but, in 1980, I branched out and built a little technology company with two other guys, which was a value-added reseller of computers.”
up a semester abroad in Florence. Lynnie, the youngest, is a freshman at St. Ignatius, where she plays volleyball on a currently undefeated team. For the Jack family like so many others, the Father/Daughter dance is a cherished tradition. “We also love the crab feeds, holiday events and I particularly enjoy cheeseburgers on the golf course,” he elaborated. “Enjoying the Club requires getting involved, whether your passion is athletics or social activities, you just need to participate and joining a committee is also a great way to do that.” Previously, JJ served on the Golf Tournament and Hall of Fame Committees and was the Athletic Chair in 2010. “Committee involvement really helped me appreciate the Club. The membership here is such an amazing collective of both varied and common interests, where everyone you meet is generally welcoming of new friendships. Throughout my 31 years as a member, I’ve always appreciated the friendships I’ve made.” When asked about his upcoming term as President, JJ remarked, “I’m honored and excited to serve as President in 2015. We have another great incoming class on the board who are focused on what we can do to make things better. We’re always looking for incremental or significant changes, which are the right, bigpicture thing to do for the OC. But, there’s also so much that’s wonderful about the Club now and simply needs to be maintained. I hope people will talk to me about their thoughts and what they’d like to see here.” It’s not hard to find the new President around the Club, as he’s been part of the City Club’s “AM workout gang” for 25 years, doing
Because of his history in the San Francisco tech scene, JJ is atypically apt to discuss Silicon Valley and the “bubble theory” debate. “The Tech boom here is not really comparable to the ‘tech boom’ on the whole,” he said. “Here, there are actually sustainable businesses — like Salesforce, Twitter and countless others — and I don’t think we’ll see a bubble burst all of a sudden where 80% of the companies go away. Rather, I believe the SF community will continue to thrive from the tech “Caring to know and understand what motivates companies here. people is one of the most critical skills to have.” On that note, the That little tech company began the impres- composition of The Olympic Club has always sive journey that became JJ’s career. After reflected the demographics of San Francisco, so building it up for four years, he joined Martin we’ll probably start seeing more members from Marietta, a large defense contractor that also the tech industry.” sold software for IBM mainframe computers. When asked to divulge some of the After two years there, he was hired as one of wisdom he has gleaned from his career-to-date, Sybase’s early employees, spearheading the sales JJ thoughtfully shared what has helped him force and enabling Sybase to become the fastest the most. “From my time in sales at Sybase, growing company of its generation, noted for I learned it’s important to be able to read reaching billion dollar annual revenues from people, which stayed with me through all my 1986 to 1994. JJ was there for about 10 years interactions,” he said. “Caring to know and before trying his hand at other startup endeavunderstand what motivates people is one of the ors, some ending in rewarding acquisitions. most critical skills to have.” Most notable is his time at Fortify, where “Enjoying the club requires getting involved, whether your passion he entered as CEO in 2004, working to build a meaningful business around security. He led is athletics or social activities, you just need to participate and Fortify to their acquisition by Hewlett-Packard joining a committee is also a great way to do that.” in 2010. It doesn’t come as a surprise, then, that a routine of aerobic exercise, some weight JJ is now a board partner at one of the most The loving father of three beautiful training and stretching, before seeing Eddie reputable venture capitalist firms in the world, daughters, he makes a dynamic team with in the Café for a green monster smoothie with Andreessen Horowitz. his wife, Susan. Susan Jack is an avid athlete, an extra banana and protein powder. He’s also “Marc [Andreessen] and Ben [Horowitz] novice sports photographer, beekeeper and often in Article III for lunch, or utilizing his are tremendous visionaries and the opportunity loves to study Italian. Their oldest daughter, golf privilege holder status at Lakeside, where to work with them, and the rest of the team, Jenny, is married to Olympian Brian Peters. he hopes to fulfill his New Year’s resolution is amazing. I get the experience of being After following in her dad’s footsteps, she is of shaving three strokes off his handicap. around them, in addition to sitting on boards also a graduate of Cal and is now teaching AP Occasionally, he’ll go for a swim in the at two very exciting tech companies on behalf English at St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley. natatorium but he resists the urge to jump from of the firm.” Kendall is a junior at Gonzaga University the balcony, as he knows it’s not allowed. studying psychology and is currently finishing The Olympic Club | January 2015
5
O L Y M P I C
Vol. 103 No. 1 Jan 2015
JOHN M. JAC K
2015 Olympic Club President
C L U B
•
S A N
F R A N C I S C O
S
ome years ago, in San Francisco’s most illustrious natatorium, a young boy stood unnerved on a narrow ledge, three stories up. For comic relief from this otherwise terrifying situation, he wore an oversized sweatshirt to cushion the sting from a belly flop, should he hit the water wrong. “Jump!” his friends cried, and he leapt from the ledge, never imagining that one day he, a slightly daring but otherwise dutiful youth, might be a rule-enforcer over this same pool. John “JJ” Jack, The Olympic Club’s newest president, fondly recounts Club memories from his youth. “I was just a guest in those days but all my experiences were wonderful, impromptu times. We’d swim, eat, play basketball, or just do whatever.” President Jack, or “JJ” as he prefers, has humorous stories from his days as a gallivanting Club guest, but it’s easy to tell that he was more the hard-working and studious type as a kid. As testament, when JJ was a fifth grader, he joined San Francisco’s motley crew of paperboys, ensuring that Inner Sunset occupants received their news in a timely fashion. He grew up and worked around San Francisco most of his life, having gone to St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School and graduating from University of California Berkeley, where he and former Olympic Club President, David Bonelli, were fraternity brothers.
JJ ME E T YO UR NE W C L UB P R E S IDE N T
JOHN -M. JACK by Kelly Hook
4
Right: Jack with (from left) former president Dennis Murphy, Jack, City Clubhouse Manager Pam Andres and General Manager Pat Finlen at the 2014 Hike & Dip. Top left: The Jack family at home (left to right), son-in-law Brian Peters, Jenny, Lynnie, Susan and John. Photos on this page by Mike Mustacchi. Top right: Jack and his daughter Kendall, in Venice.
The Olympic Club | January 2015
J
“My first job out of college was as a bartender during San Francisco’s littleknown ‘Fern Bar Era.’ I was making lots of Irish Coffees at Lord Jim’s, which no longer exists, on the corner of Polk and Broadway,” he reminisced. “I was in no hurry to stop bartending but, in 1980, I branched out and built a little technology company with two other guys, which was a value-added reseller of computers.”
up a semester abroad in Florence. Lynnie, the youngest, is a freshman at St. Ignatius, where she plays volleyball on a currently undefeated team. For the Jack family like so many others, the Father/Daughter dance is a cherished tradition. “We also love the crab feeds, holiday events and I particularly enjoy cheeseburgers on the golf course,” he elaborated. “Enjoying the Club requires getting involved, whether your passion is athletics or social activities, you just need to participate and joining a committee is also a great way to do that.” Previously, JJ served on the Golf Tournament and Hall of Fame Committees and was the Athletic Chair in 2010. “Committee involvement really helped me appreciate the Club. The membership here is such an amazing collective of both varied and common interests, where everyone you meet is generally welcoming of new friendships. Throughout my 31 years as a member, I’ve always appreciated the friendships I’ve made.” When asked about his upcoming term as President, JJ remarked, “I’m honored and excited to serve as President in 2015. We have another great incoming class on the board who are focused on what we can do to make things better. We’re always looking for incremental or significant changes, which are the right, bigpicture thing to do for the OC. But, there’s also so much that’s wonderful about the Club now and simply needs to be maintained. I hope people will talk to me about their thoughts and what they’d like to see here.” It’s not hard to find the new President around the Club, as he’s been part of the City Club’s “AM workout gang” for 25 years, doing
Because of his history in the San Francisco tech scene, JJ is atypically apt to discuss Silicon Valley and the “bubble theory” debate. “The Tech boom here is not really comparable to the ‘tech boom’ on the whole,” he said. “Here, there are actually sustainable businesses — like Salesforce, Twitter and countless others — and I don’t think we’ll see a bubble burst all of a sudden where 80% of the companies go away. Rather, I believe the SF community will continue to thrive from the tech “Caring to know and understand what motivates companies here. people is one of the most critical skills to have.” On that note, the That little tech company began the impres- composition of The Olympic Club has always sive journey that became JJ’s career. After reflected the demographics of San Francisco, so building it up for four years, he joined Martin we’ll probably start seeing more members from Marietta, a large defense contractor that also the tech industry.” sold software for IBM mainframe computers. When asked to divulge some of the After two years there, he was hired as one of wisdom he has gleaned from his career-to-date, Sybase’s early employees, spearheading the sales JJ thoughtfully shared what has helped him force and enabling Sybase to become the fastest the most. “From my time in sales at Sybase, growing company of its generation, noted for I learned it’s important to be able to read reaching billion dollar annual revenues from people, which stayed with me through all my 1986 to 1994. JJ was there for about 10 years interactions,” he said. “Caring to know and before trying his hand at other startup endeavunderstand what motivates people is one of the ors, some ending in rewarding acquisitions. most critical skills to have.” Most notable is his time at Fortify, where “Enjoying the club requires getting involved, whether your passion he entered as CEO in 2004, working to build a meaningful business around security. He led is athletics or social activities, you just need to participate and Fortify to their acquisition by Hewlett-Packard joining a committee is also a great way to do that.” in 2010. It doesn’t come as a surprise, then, that a routine of aerobic exercise, some weight JJ is now a board partner at one of the most The loving father of three beautiful training and stretching, before seeing Eddie reputable venture capitalist firms in the world, daughters, he makes a dynamic team with in the Café for a green monster smoothie with Andreessen Horowitz. his wife, Susan. Susan Jack is an avid athlete, an extra banana and protein powder. He’s also “Marc [Andreessen] and Ben [Horowitz] novice sports photographer, beekeeper and often in Article III for lunch, or utilizing his are tremendous visionaries and the opportunity loves to study Italian. Their oldest daughter, golf privilege holder status at Lakeside, where to work with them, and the rest of the team, Jenny, is married to Olympian Brian Peters. he hopes to fulfill his New Year’s resolution is amazing. I get the experience of being After following in her dad’s footsteps, she is of shaving three strokes off his handicap. around them, in addition to sitting on boards also a graduate of Cal and is now teaching AP Occasionally, he’ll go for a swim in the at two very exciting tech companies on behalf English at St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley. natatorium but he resists the urge to jump from of the firm.” Kendall is a junior at Gonzaga University the balcony, as he knows it’s not allowed. studying psychology and is currently finishing The Olympic Club | January 2015
5
