Jeff Mallett
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Mallett is best known for building internet giant Yahoo!
from its start-up phase into the global franchise it is today. Described as Yahoo's "wizard behind the curtains pulling all the levers," Mallett continues to be active in directly managing a portfolio of Internet, sports, entertainment and real estate investments in the United States, Canada, England, and China.
and 30% ownership of the San Francisco Bay Area's regional sports cable television network Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. In April 2009, the San Francisco Giants
purchased a 25 percent ownership stake in the San Jose Giants
, with the option of buying another 30 percent of the team, or a controlling interest, by the end of 2010. The San Jose Giants are a member of the Class A Advanced California League and part of the San Francisco team's minor-league farm system since 1988. Mallett joined the San Francisco Giants organization in 2002.
, and then move during that season to the newly-renovated BC Place Stadium
in the city’s downtown entertainment district. The venue will undergo approximately $458 million in improvements before the new team takes to the field, and will have a seamless 20,000-seat soccer-specific configuration.[] The 2009 Vancouver Whitecaps season went down as one of the most eventful campaigns in club history.
, Mallett became investor and part owner of the Women's Professional Soccer
(WPS) league. While Nash and Mallett will not operate a team, their investment will fund the ongoing development of WPS. Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is the premier women’s soccer league in the world and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured. The Inaugural Season kicked off in March 2009 with seven WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league’s eighth and nine franchises, Philadelphia and Atlanta, will begin play in the 2010 WPS Season, which begins March 2010.
is a global technology company providing Internet solutions to enable ISPs, media companies and advertisers to build close relationships with consumers on the Internet.
, a leading digital music service by Napster
founder, Shawn Fanning. In 2008 SNOCAP was sold to imeem which is currently the third largest social network in the U.S. with over 24 million unique visitors a month.
and baseball with Gordon Head Baseball Association
. As a teenager he was selected as an 'All Canadian' playing soccer at the University of Victoria
in Canada
. He went on to play for one year at San Francisco State University
. Mallett attended and played varsity soccer at University of Victoria, Santa Rosa Jr. College, and San Francisco State University.
professor Don Emery. The company developed grammar checking software and was bought by Word Perfect in 1992, where Mallett became head of the global consumer division.
Before the age of 30, Mallett was vice president and general manager of the consumer products division of Novell, Inc. and a member of Novell’s global marketing board, where he was involved with the merger of Novell and WordPerfect Corporation in 1994.
Though Mallett has a history and experience in growing technology companies, his real love is sports. Mallett has been involved in sports – especially soccer - all his life.
Mallett spent five years on Premier Gordon Campbell’s British Columbia Progress Board. He was on the Premier’s Progress Board from 2004–2007. The Board is an independent panel of up to 18 senior business executives and academic leaders, selected for their proven ability to contribute expertise on the province's economic progress and environmental and social condition.
Mallett is involved in numerous charity and humanitarian projects and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife of 23 years and their two daughters.
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
from its start-up phase into the global franchise it is today. Described as Yahoo's "wizard behind the curtains pulling all the levers," Mallett continues to be active in directly managing a portfolio of Internet, sports, entertainment and real estate investments in the United States, Canada, England, and China.
Yahoo!
Mallett is recognized as an icon of the Internet technology boom that lit up stock markets from the mid-to-late 1990s. In 1995 Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang offered North Vancouver-born Mallett the job of president and COO at Yang’s 11-employee startup Nasdaq:YHOO before the web portal had a coherent business model. Mallett helped the company go public in 1996, and during his seven-year tenure, he helped build Yahoo into one of the most recognizable entertainment and media brands in the world. By 2002, Mallett managed a global workforce of 4,000 employees in 27 countries, with $1 billion in revenue, and had overseen more than 20 acquisitions for the company. As president and chief operating officer for Yahoo Inc. from 1995–2002, Mallett helped drive extraordinary growth and success for the company while simultaneously serving as an elected member of the Board of Directors.San Francisco Giants
Mallett is currently a principal owner and executive committee member of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, a role which includes ownership and management of the award-winning AT&T ParkAT&T Park
AT&T Park is a ballpark located in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at the corner of Third and King Streets, it has served as the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball since 2000....
and 30% ownership of the San Francisco Bay Area's regional sports cable television network Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. In April 2009, the San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
purchased a 25 percent ownership stake in the San Jose Giants
San Jose Giants
The San Jose Giants are a minor league baseball team in San Jose, California, USA. They are a Class A - Advanced team in the Northern Division of the California League, and have been a farm team of the San Francisco Giants since 1988. Home games are played at San Jose Municipal Stadium...
, with the option of buying another 30 percent of the team, or a controlling interest, by the end of 2010. The San Jose Giants are a member of the Class A Advanced California League and part of the San Francisco team's minor-league farm system since 1988. Mallett joined the San Francisco Giants organization in 2002.
Derby County Football Club
Mallett is not only involved in soccer in the United States and Canada; on March 20, 2009 he became a principal investor of Derby County Football Club, which plays in the UK.’s Championship League. Mallett travels to England frequently as a member of the Derby County Football Club Board of Directors.Vancouver Whitecaps MLS
Mallett is an investor and co-director of the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Vancouver Whitecaps ownership group consists of Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett, and Steve Nash. On October 15, 2008, the Whitecaps submitted a bid to secure one of two MLS expansion teams for the 2011 season, having initially announced their bidding plans at a press conference in Vancouver on July 25, 2008. On March 18, 2009, Major League Soccer (MLS) commissioner Don Garber announced that Vancouver would be the home of the 17th team in MLS. The MLS team will begin play in 2011 at the temporary Empire FieldEmpire Field
Empire Field was a temporary outdoor football and soccer stadium built at the former location of Empire Stadium at Hastings Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. It served as the home of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League from the summer of 2010 until the fall of 2011 when the installation...
, and then move during that season to the newly-renovated BC Place Stadium
BC Place Stadium
BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium located at the north side of False Creek, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the home field for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer . Originally opened on June 19, 1983 as the...
in the city’s downtown entertainment district. The venue will undergo approximately $458 million in improvements before the new team takes to the field, and will have a seamless 20,000-seat soccer-specific configuration.[] The 2009 Vancouver Whitecaps season went down as one of the most eventful campaigns in club history.
Women's Professional Soccer
In early 2008, along with close friend NBA MVP Steve NashSteve Nash
Stephen John "Steve" Nash, OC, OBC is a South African-born Canadian professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association . Nash enjoyed a successful high-school basketball career, and he was eventually given a scholarship by Santa Clara...
, Mallett became investor and part owner of the Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer is the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded 6 teams for the 2011 season, with continued plans for future expansion...
(WPS) league. While Nash and Mallett will not operate a team, their investment will fund the ongoing development of WPS. Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is the premier women’s soccer league in the world and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured. The Inaugural Season kicked off in March 2009 with seven WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league’s eighth and nine franchises, Philadelphia and Atlanta, will begin play in the 2010 WPS Season, which begins March 2010.
Indochino
Mallett is Chairman and a principal investor of Indochino, which claims to be the world’s largest online retailer of custom suits. With offices in Vancouver, British Columbia and Shanghai, China, Indochino provides custom tailored suits. Founded by CEO Kyle Vucko, 22, and 26-year-old Heikal Gani - both students at the University of Victoria when they started the company - Indochino has benefited from favorable media attention, and has already surpassed sales targets. Indochino's website was launched in 2007. BusinessWeek features Indochino in their series, America's Most Promising Startups, with the article, This Business Suits the Internet. Indochino has customers in 60 countries and sales nearly quintupled in 2009, with 35% of orders coming from repeat customers.Synacor
Mallett is also a board member of New York-based technology firm Synacor. Since September 2007, he has been a member of the board of directors of Synacor, the leading provider of private label digital Internet services to North America’s cable and telecom companies. Synacoris a global technology company providing Internet solutions to enable ISPs, media companies and advertisers to build close relationships with consumers on the Internet.
Steve Nash Enterprises
Mallett is an advisor to the newly formed, Steve Nash Enterprises, a portfolio of a dozen ventures which includes Nash's foundation, The Steve Nash Foundation. Formed in 2001, given U.S. charitable status in 2004, and Canadian charitable status in 2007, the Steve Nash Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to assisting underserved children in their health, personal development, education and enjoyment of life. Nash has started a film-production company; become a part owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps, which will join Major League Soccer in 2011; and taken equity in several startups, including Mission Skincare, which develops products for athletes. Ultimately, part of the revenue will go to his foundation.Vineyard Knolls Golf Club of Napa
Mallett is the owner of Napa Valley’s Vineyard Knolls Golf Club of Napa. Purchased in 1999 by the Mallett family, Vineyard Knolls Golf Club of Napa was originally Napa's first municipal golf course and was called Little Knolls. It was later purchased by hollywood movie producer, David Wolper who transformed the property into a private estate. Vineyard Knolls is a golf course on 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) in the Carneros wine region the Napa Valley. Vineyard Knolls is a USGA member course and is NCGA sanctioned with a rating/slope of 57.6/94. The Course is also a teaching course for the David Pelz 3-Day Scoring Game School.Corotto Vineyards
Mallett is also the owner of Napa Valley’s Corotto Vineyards in Napa’s Carneros district. Located next to Vineyard Knolls Golf Club of Napa, Corotto Vineyards is a premium Carneros vineyard that has been growing pinot noir and chardonnay grapes for some of Napa and Sonoma Valley's most well known winemakers and wineries for over 30 years.Snocap
From 2005–2008 Mallett served as Chairman of SNOCAPSNOCAP
BackgroundThe company was founded by Shawn Fanning , Jordan Mendelson, and Ron Conway. Other SNOCAP employees included music lawyer Christian Castle, the company's first General Counsel, and Ali Aydar, the company's Chief Operating Officer, who joined imeem after its acquisition of SNOCAP in April...
, a leading digital music service by Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
founder, Shawn Fanning. In 2008 SNOCAP was sold to imeem which is currently the third largest social network in the U.S. with over 24 million unique visitors a month.
University of Victoria
Mallett stays close to his Canadian roots by remaining active with the University of Victoria including being appointed to the Faculty of Business Board of Advisors and recognized with the first Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the business school. The annual award acknowledges an inspirational entrepreneur who has had a significant and positive impact on the global community through his or her business leadership. Supporting the next generation of leaders, Mallett established the The Jeffrey Mallett Leadership Award which is an annual scholarship awarded to an outstanding University of Victoria student.The Early Years
While living in Victoria, Jeff attended Arbutus Junior High School (Sept 1977-June 1980) and Mount Douglas Secondary School (Sept 1980 - June 1982), graduating with the "Class of Gold". Jeff was a standout athlete playing soccer with Gordon Head Soccer AssociationGordon Head Soccer Association
The Gordon Head Soccer Association is located in the municipality of Saanich in Victoria, British Columbia. The club is affiliated with the British Columbia Soccer Association...
and baseball with Gordon Head Baseball Association
Gordon Head Baseball Association
The Gordon Head Baseball Association is located in the municipality of Saanich in Victoria, British Columbia. The Gordon Head Baseball Association provides a comprehensive baseball program for players from 4 to 12 years old, in 5 separate divisions including Blastball, Initiation, Novice, Mosquito...
. As a teenager he was selected as an 'All Canadian' playing soccer at the University of Victoria
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He went on to play for one year at San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
. Mallett attended and played varsity soccer at University of Victoria, Santa Rosa Jr. College, and San Francisco State University.
Early career
At the age of 22 he was running sales, marketing and business development at his parents' small telecommunications company, Island Pacific Telephone until it was acquired by telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless in 1987. He was one of the founders of Reference Software, a company started by then San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
professor Don Emery. The company developed grammar checking software and was bought by Word Perfect in 1992, where Mallett became head of the global consumer division.
Before the age of 30, Mallett was vice president and general manager of the consumer products division of Novell, Inc. and a member of Novell’s global marketing board, where he was involved with the merger of Novell and WordPerfect Corporation in 1994.
Though Mallett has a history and experience in growing technology companies, his real love is sports. Mallett has been involved in sports – especially soccer - all his life.
Mallett spent five years on Premier Gordon Campbell’s British Columbia Progress Board. He was on the Premier’s Progress Board from 2004–2007. The Board is an independent panel of up to 18 senior business executives and academic leaders, selected for their proven ability to contribute expertise on the province's economic progress and environmental and social condition.
Mallett is involved in numerous charity and humanitarian projects and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife of 23 years and their two daughters.