Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Greg Jamison runs the area's professional hockey team and the tank where the team plays
Tank Boss
Sharks chief Greg Jamison says the goal is to win the coveted Stanley Cup
By Leigh Ann Maze
Photographs By Kathy De La Torre
Greg Jamison, president and CEO of the San Jose Sharks National Hockey League team and the San Jose Arena, came to sports management through the normal route--he was an elementary school teacher for five years. "I was going to be a principal," says Jamison.
But Jamison had a change of heart and decided he'd like to get into athletic management - so he headed for Colorado State University where, in 1976, he earned his masters degree in business.
The Pacific Northwest native began his career in athletics management in 1977 with a three-year stint as director of marketing for Athletes in Action, a Christian amateur sports organization.
Even though he made the leap from school teacher to businessman, Jamison says he still uses the skills he learned as a teacher in his day-to-day business. And his friend and colleague Malcolm Bordelon concurs.
"His background in teaching really comes across in a positive way in his management style," says Bordelon. "Even if he's telling you that you're not doing something in the right way, it's still uplifting."
In 1980 Jamison's career took a leap when he met the man who was starting the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, and Jamison became the sixth person hired in that organization.
After seven years in Texas, helping to raise the Mavericks from an obscure expansion team into a well-respected National Basketball Association (NBA) team, Jamison went on to work for the Indiana Pacers, another NBA team.
On Aug. 11, 1993, he was hired as the San Jose Shark's executive vice president and chief operating officer to provide leadership to the young, new hockey team.
He, his wife, Vicki, and their two children, Lynna and Spencer, moved across the country to Saratoga when Jamison began his new job. The Jamisons lived in Saratoga for several years, but recently moved to Los Gatos.
Jamison arrived when the Sharks were just two years old and one month shy of the christening of the Sharks' new home, the San Jose Arena. The first hockey game played in the Arena was Sept. 30, 1993, when the Sharks beat the New York Islanders, 4 to 2, in a pre-season contest.
In Feb. 1996, Art Savage, the Shark's president and chief executive officer, announced his decision to leave the club. Shark's owner and Chairman George Gund promoted Jamison to take Savage's place.
After his promotion Jamison's duties included working on hockey department issues, including major player and personnel decisions, and issues relating to overall company objectives and philosophy. Jamison also oversees all Sharks and San Jose Arena functions, including ticket sales, advertising and sponsorship.
"My role is to look at business and to lead this company into the future in a positive way," Jamison says. "It's my job to create an environment where players can play at their highest level, and the fans can come and watch and enjoy. I work behind the scenes to create a sense of direction."
Jamison's ultimate goal, he says, is for the Sharks to win the Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League's most coveted prize, and one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in sports, according to Jamison.
The closest the Sharks have ever come to touching the elusive Stanley Cup is the playoffs, that they have reached several times including during the 1993-1994 season, as well as last season when they reached the second round of the playoffs.
"It takes years to develop an organization," says Jamison. In order to meet their lofty goal, he and the Shark's coaches are following a philosophy of drafting quality youth and surrounding them with experienced veterans to build up a strong core team, Jamison says. The Sharks management has followed this philosophy for five years. Training is just beginning for the 2000-2001 hockey season, that spans from October to April with playoffs in June.
"We've got a good group of guys," says Jamison, adding that there is a new free agent who has been signed on, but for the most part the team will have many of the same faces as last season.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
The halls of the executive offices at the San Jose Arena include a wall of framed magazine artwork. Five different departments, including the Sharks and the arena, report to Jamison.
But hockey is not all Jamison oversees; in fact, four other departments, including legal, finance, business and San Jose Arena--affectionately called, the shark tank--report directly to Jamison.
Jamison and Executive Vice President of Business Operations Bordelon recently worked together to create a new business division of the Sharks and San Jose Arena called Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment (SVS&E).
Jamison was a client of Bordelon when he worked in Dallas. The friends and colleagues also worked together with the Indiana Pacers. Bordelon now reports directly to Jamison with the Sharks.
Jamison announced the creation of SVS&E in Feb. 2000. SVS&E oversees all aspects of marketing, sponsorship, sales management, broadcast, ticket sales and other business operations, including the Sybase Open and the Siebel Classic, a Silicon Valley golf tournament to be held in March 2001.
In his personal life, Jamison and his family quickly assimilated to Saratoga's tight-knit community after moving from Indiana. When they first moved here, Jamison's son was in the sixth grade and his daughter was just beginning Saratoga High School. Vicki Jamison became extremely involved in the SHS PTSA and Booster's Club.
Jamison, too, was involved with the local schools. Most notably, Jamison started the National Junior Basketball at SHS in 1993-1994, along with another Saratoga parent. National Junior Basketball is similar to a Little League of basketball for local youth in the second through eighth grades.
It has grown into a very large and popular program in Saratoga, with hundreds of young people participating, according to SHS principal Kevin Skelly.
Jamison also started a very successful program that benefits youth in his professional life. He helped found the Shark's Foundation in 1994, to provide resources and financial support to nonprofit organizations, especially those that enhance the lives of local youth. Local organizations that have benefited from the Foundation include The Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clara County, Child Quest International, The California Highway Patrol 11-99 Foundation, Junior Achievement, People Acting in Community Together, The Role Model Program, the San Jose Museum of Art, Easter Seals of Santa Clara County, Police Activities League, Santa Clara County Special Olympics, the Walden West Foundation and the YWCA of Santa Clara County.
The Foundation raised and distributed $200,000 for its beneficiaries in the 1996-1997 season and $300,000 in the 1997-1998 season.
Bordelon, who helped create the Foundation, describes Jamison as a competitive man, whether on the job or on the golf course, but also a man with deep compassion for others.
Bordelon also says Jamison is a very spiritual man, whose faith is very important to him. Jamison, whose father was a Nazarene minister, attends Saratoga Federated Church.
In April 1999, Jamison and Pierre Lacroix, the president and general manager of the Colorado Avalanche hockey team, jointly decided to postpone two games in the NHL playoff series just after the tragic shooting at Columbine High School.
"The thing that I felt good about ... was that we all felt very strongly that this tragedy certainly transcends sports," Jamison told the Denver Post. "Our hearts and prayers are with the families and kids affected by this."
Bordelon also recalls recently when an employee of the Shark's building operations staff had to have serious surgery and was out for while. When he returned to work, Jamison gave him a warm welcome back at the staff meeting. Afterwards, the man came up to Jamison and Bordelon overheard him thanking Jamison for calling him at the hospital, and that it really meant a lot to him.
"It may seem like a very minor point but a friend of mine in another sports franchise said they would never do that there," says Bordelon. "Greg has compassion for people and he cares about the employees who work for him. He expects you to do a good job for him at work, but he also knows you have a life and a family."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
