J. L. (Jack) Davies was founder and President of AOL International, where he led the global expansion of AOL, the world's leader in interactive services, and Compuserve into key markets in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Canada. Under Jack’s leadership, AOL International grew to over 4 million members and over $1 billion in revenues within 4 years of the launch of the first international service in late 1995. Jack joined AOL as Senior Vice President of AOL Services in July 1993 and was responsible for all content and marketing activities. During his tenure, AOL tripled its subscriber base to more than one million members. Jack retired from AOL in 2000.
Before joining AOL, Jack was Managing Director of Citicorp's London-based consumer mortgage business where he managed assets of more than $3.5 billion and a 1,000-member staff. Previously, he was Vice President, Europe, for RCA Records, where he helped form a joint venture company between RCA and Bertelsmann to create Europe's second largest record company. Earlier, Jack spent 10 years at General Electric in marketing management positions for consumer electronics products.
Jack earned an MBA (with Honors) in Marketing (1973) and a BA (with High Distinction) in Political Science (1972) from the University of Rochester. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, and serves as a Special Advisor to General Atlantic Partners, a leading global private equity investment firm.
Since leaving AOL, Jack has been very active in philanthropy. He is a member of the Board and the Executive Committee of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a "venture philanthropy" fund created to help underprivileged young people in the Greater Washington DC area. He represents VPP on the Board of Heads Up, an innovative after school program providing education and enrichment to children and families in Washington, DC, and on the Board of the See Forever Foundation which operates the Maya Angelou public charter school serving some of DC’s most at-risk teenagers. Jack is also on the Boards of the Maret School and Horizons@Maret, a weekend/summer program for inner city elementary school children. In addition, he serves on the Board of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. Most recently, Jack joined the Board of the Washington Scholarship Fund, which oversees the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, which gives educational choice to over 1,750 students from low-income families. He is a minority partner in Lincoln Holdings which owns the Washington Capitals NHL hockey team and the Washington Mystics, and is a minority owner of the Washington Wizards NBA basketball team and Verizon Center. He has one child and resides in Washington DC.
