John P. Jacobson

2009 ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE

John P. Jacobson died April 2010

Mr. Jacobson brought over 34 years of business experience to the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and served as an excellent source of knowledge and real world experience for all of our entrepreneurs and students.

During his 34 year career, Mr. Jacobson blended both corporate and entrepreneurial management, serving as everything from a sales rep to a CEO, working in a Fortune 100 environment to a self started private enterprise and everything in between. He has intimate working knowledge of how decisions are made at a Fortune 100 company as well as a start up.  Mr. Jacobson has had Board level responsibilities in both public and privately held companies in foreign as well as domestic enterprises. He was instrumental in the creation of business plans and strategic planning and forecasting documents at corporate, divisional and subsidiary level as well as the guidance and implementation of those plans. He is well versed in financial reporting and disclosure for public and private companies with an extensive background in assessing corporate valuations for capital formation or exit strategy purposes.

Mr. Jacobson spent well over half his corporate career in International operations with experience in both subsidiary management as well as third party distributors. He has had C level responsibilities in private and public companies, focusing on capital formation, manufacturing, sales, marketing, finance and product development as well as serving as the primary interface between the corporation and the technology and business press. Mr. Jacobson enjoys an exceptionally diverse management background from technology based companies to product marketing companies and from hardware companies to service and support companies with revenue responsibilities from under a million dollars up to 3 billion. His management skills extend from small bands of locally based entrepreneurial employees to complex structures involving thousands of employees spread across the globe. Mr. Jacobson spent the last 7 years in mergers and acquisitions assisting individuals and privately held companies realize their exit strategy goals.