In His Own Words: The Life and Career of Jack Kosakowski

June 28, 2024

On June 30, Junior Achievement USA CEO Jack Kosakowski will retire from the organization after a storied 50-year career. We sat down with Jack to reflect on his professional life, what he’s learned, how JA has changed over time, and what’s next.

You Can’t Spell Jack without JA

Growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Jack wasn’t a great student, but thanks to a JA mentor who saw his potential, he flourished through the JA Company Program.

“I got involved in JA kind of by accident. Well, honestly, I joined JA because of a girl. My family didn’t really focus on education. My dad was blue-collar, and I wasn’t a good student up until that point. When I got to JA, I met the person who changed my life. My advisor, Jim Gimple, saw something in me that coaches hadn't seen, that teachers hadn’t seen.”

Just as Mr. Gimple helped a young Jack, hundreds of thousands of volunteers and educators work with JA students around the world today. Under their mentorship, JA students benefit from real-world work experience and know-how, transforming their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and aspirations as they build toward successful careers.

“When I was in JA, we had these JA centers around town,” Jack continued. “One of the advantages is that, as a kid, you would go to a JA center and meet kids from all over the city. So if you had a reputation in your school as being a nerd or a quiet kid, nobody knew that because you were all in it together. It was really a networking opportunity, too.

*Jack and his JA Student Company featured in a local newspaper.*

“I was a really shy kid. It was hard for me to even talk to people. But since I was elected vice president of sales for my first JA student company, I did a lot of door-to-door selling. I also taught other students how to sell, and that’s what really brought me out of my shell.”

Jack created three JA student companies through the JA Company Program, during which students produce a product, create a company, and manage a business from start to finish. “The very first year we sold hard candy. The name of my first company was Sweet Gems. We sold hard candy covered in powdered sugar in a little jar. I would go door-to-door and say, ‘Hi, I'm Jack Kosakowski. I'm with Sweet Gems.’

“Believe it or not, even in that small city, the JA operation was big back in the day. I became president of my company in my second year and treasurer the next year. In the second year, we made and sold salad dressing and cheese balls, and in the third year, we sold plaques.”

From JA Student to JA Leader

Jack didn’t jump directly from the role of JA student to JA employee, but there weren’t too many steps in between. “Before working for JA, I sold men's suits, and, of all things, I was a bookkeeper for a lawyer in high school.” Once again, a teacher spotted Jack’s innate talents. “I had a teacher who had been an IRS agent. He saw something in me, so he got me this job where I was recording all these transactions for this lawyer.”

Jack attended college on a JA scholarship and was the first person in his family to earn a four-year degree. Despite a rigorous academic schedule, Jack also worked full-time. During his freshman year, he worked as an assistant buyer for men’s suits at the department store, a job he secured through a JA connection. By his sophomore year, he began working for his local JA office full-time, continuing to balance work and academics simultaneously.

“You know, the good news is that I met so many people and made so many contacts who helped me professionally during that time. The not-so-good news is that I never really had a traditional college experience. I would go to school, get my classes in, and go right to work. And in those days, the JA Company Program ran at night, so I would go to class in the morning, be in the office by 10am, work till 9:00 or 9:30 at night, then try to squeeze homework in there somewhere.”

“JA just totally changed my life. I loved JA so much. The president of JA in Toledo at the time was a guy by the name of Tom Rutter, and Tom saw something in me very early on. In fact, I remember one time Karl Flemke, the CEO of Junior Achievement USA at the time, came to town, and Tom told Karl, ‘One day that guy’s gonna have your job.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, okay.’ And sooner or later, I got the job as CEO of the national organization.”

Jack didn’t move directly from the Toledo operation to the national office. There were a few steps in between. “When I came up through the network, the way you got ahead is you would relocate. When I was in Toledo, it was a great operation, and then I went to run the JA Wisconsin operation, which was well run but different. So when I got there, my eyes were open. I realized, ‘Oh, JA’s different here than I'm used to.' That was a tremendous learning experience.”

After his tenure in Wisconsin, Jack moved to the JA national headquarters, where he served as Chief Operating Officer. “I always use the analogy of The Wizard of Oz,” he laughed. “Working at different JA locations is like going behind the curtain. And I mean, in all the offices, I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly in terms of what's going on, but it was only because of that progression that I could see the organization bigger and bigger and bigger. That changes your whole attitude, and, you know, humility is critical. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room because there are other people who do things better than you do. And that’s great! That's probably been one of the most important lessons throughout my career.”

The JA Eras

Over his 50 years at JA, Jack has seen more than a few eras in the organization and tremendous growth in the number of students and the variety of learning experiences available. “When I first joined, we only had the JA Company Program here in the United States. I think at its peak, around 300,000 kids participated.” Back then, Jack mused, shop teachers and sports coaches primarily facilitated the JA Company Program. But the program began to grow when JA started offering additional learning experiences. “The first big change was when we entered the schools with a program called JA Project Business. That was revolutionary because we were suddenly in the education space, and we had to understand the challenges teachers faced. But we persevered because we wanted to bring realism to JA learning experiences. JA Project Business was so successful that, for the first time, we expanded to reach students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.”

*Jack with JA Company Program students at the JA USA National Student Leadership Summit.*

One of the unintended consequences of that growth, which could be due to the time, was that the JA Company Program took a back seat. “In those days, the numbers were driven by in-school programs. But, you know, the JA Company Program, at its core, was a transformational experience for kids, even more so than what takes place in the classroom.”

The JA era that stands out the most to Jack was the creation of JA Worldwide in 2004. “It opened my eyes to a whole world that I had never seen. To me, that was very exciting. We’re making an impact globally, not just in the US. We’ve been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! Sometimes, when you talk to people in the US, they struggle to understand why Junior Achievement has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. But when they see what we're doing around the world and look at it through a global lens, they get it.”

*Jack and the JA USA team at their National Leadership Conferece.*

A Tale of Two Jacks

Like every professional, Jack faced numerous hurdles and shepherded the organization through a few of its own. “You know, when I took over as CEO of Junior Achievement USA in 2007, we had a ton of operational issues. We had to clean up the business side of Junior Achievement because, at that point, we had good products but the relationship between the national office and the local area offices was terrible. Cleaning that up became my main focus. I’m an organization guy.”

Thanks to his impeccable organization skills, Jack’s successor Jack Harris will be able to focus on different goals when he steps into the Junior Achievement USA CEO role on July 1. The current President and CEO of 3DE National, a wholly owned subsidiary of Junior Achievement USA, Jack Harris, will oversee both organizations. “Jack Harris is an intelligent guy,” Jack Kosakowski reflected. “He's good at engaging people at a theoretical level but then can translate that to implementing things on the ground. “He’s able to wade through a lot of conflicting stuff. I've watched him with our local area presidents, and people really admire his knowledge of the organization and how he approaches things. He's very inclusive and very thoughtful from end to end. He thinks things through from a long-term perspective in terms of how something can be achieved and the impact we can have.”

The respect between the two Jacks is deep and mutual. “Jack Kosakowski is someone I have always respected and looked to as a mentor,” Jack Harris said with a smile. “I was joking the other day that I felt like he trusted me before I earned it. Jack is so good at providing space for people and opportunities. He has a lot of trust in his staff, and I have always really respected that. Jack has built a tremendous organization and legacy. Thanks to the work that he’s done, the culture of the organization is in a very solid place. I’m so grateful for the foundation that's there.”

*Jack received his 45-year JA service award at the Global Leadership Conference in Berlin.*

Legacy of Leadership

“I sincerely believe that finding the right people on your team and letting them do their job is key,” Jack Kosakowski said. “When you get to be my age, and at this stage of a career, you do a lot of reflection. And when I look back, I made a name for myself as a kind of specialist. From my very early days, I knew the JA program forward and backward. But I found that the higher you go up in the organization, what you specifically do is much less important than what you get a team to do. And that's where I see failures in some leaders: they're afraid to let go. They don't want to give credit to the people who are actually getting the job done. Instead, they've got to be in the limelight.

“You know, when I think about it, the job I have today, I was technically never interviewed for the job.” Jack laughed. “I got it out of default because a lot of people went to JA Worldwide, and I was almost the last man standing at JA USA.”

Today, Junior Achievement USA has nearly 100 staff members. “We were down to 60, I think, during the pandemic. But again, just a history lesson here, when the National organization moved to Colorado Springs in 1987, they had about 110 people on their team. And then over the years because of technology and a variety of other things, the team got smaller and smaller. Now we're getting back up. But think about it: in the heyday of the old JA Company Program, we only reached 386,000 kids a year. Today, we’re reaching over 4,000,000 young people in the US, so it’s very different.”

*Jack received his 50-year JA service award at the 2023 Global Leadership Conference in Bangkok.*

What’s Next?

It’s hard to imagine a person as vibrant and passionate as Jack Kosakowski spending his retirement in a typical way. So, what’s next for the JA legend? “The short answer is, I’ve got a couple things in the works.”

Jack will continue to serve on the Achievement Foundation Board of Directors, a separate entity from Junior Achievement, and he will serve as a volunteer board member on the recently created Junior Achievement USA Foundation. He’ll also work with JA Worldwide on leadership programs for JA staff around the world, helping to develop a pipeline of talent for the global organization.

How Has JA Changed Jack’s Life?

“From a very personal standpoint, I've been able to meet people, go places, and do things I would have never dreamed up. Because of JA, I’ve been able to make a difference in the world.”

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