Jim Jorgensen  Biography

Jim Jorgensen is a serial entrepreneur. He has started over 25 enterprises since getting his MBA at the age of 24 from Stanford Graduate School of Business. His industry selection for these new enterprises has been wide, running from retail to manufacturing.

From Internet to mail order, and from oil exploration to insurance. Some of the entities remained small, while two of them reached market caps in excess of $1 billion.

Jim Jorgensen Age

Jim Jorgensen was born in 1948 in Racine, Wisconsin in the United States. Jorgensen is 71 years old as of 2019. He earned his CPA certificate while working for KPMG during his time as a graduate student.

Jim Jorgensen Career

Jorgensen’s first start in entrepreneurialism was forming the first New Enterprise Club at Stanford with classmate Rene “Ron” Sutton which later became the Stanford Entrepreneur Club.
Jorgensen met Billie Jean King and her husband Larry during his second year of graduate school. One of his first projects was to help negotiate the Battle of the Sexes, the tennis extravaganza between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs with sports and entertainment mogul Jerry Perenchio. The event became the most watched tennis event in history.

Over the next five years, Jorgensen formed several new ventures with Billie Jean and Larry King, including:

Future Inc –a sports agency where Jorgensen was a co-founder and the CEO of a sports agency. An early entry in female sports representation, Its clients included; Billie Jean, Chris Evert, Rosie Casals and golfers Sandra Palmer and Jane Blalock, and was eventually sold to Mark McCormack’s IMG.

King Enterprises – an international sports company. Jorgensen was a co-founder and the CEO. Within three years, the company created numerous tennis tournaments on and off the Women’s Tennis Association tour and around the world.

As of 1976, the company was the world’s largest promoter of professional tennis events, with the most events and the most attendance. Tournament cities included; London, San Francisco, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Osaka, Monterrey, Atlanta, Stuttgart, and Tampa. As a promoter of the Atlanta WTA tournament, Jorgensen made the decision to invite transsexual Renée Richards to her first WTA event where she beat Rosie Casals in the opening round In 1976.

Soviet Union National Team – an entry in World Team Tennis in 1977. Jorgensen was a co-founder and the President. The team played 44 matches in 33 cities in 65 days. Its stars were Olga Morozova and Alex Metreveli – The other owners of the team were Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss and commodity trader and New York Sets owner Sol Berg. The team’s most colorful event was held in Plains, Georgia and was hosted by Lillian Carter and Billy Carter, the mother, and brother of then-President Jimmy Carter. It was held on a tennis court the team built for the occasion near Miss Lillian’s home and subsequently donated to the city of Plains.

Women’s Sports Foundation – a foundation to foster the involvement of girls and women in sports participation. Jorgensen was a co-founder and President. Jorgensen served as a Trustee for 15 years. He recruited Eva Auchincloss as Executive Director, and the Board of Trustees was expanded to include influential persons like Donna de Varona, Peggy Fleming, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. Currently, the Women’s Sports Foundation is one of the most influential organizations in women’s sports.

WomenSports magazine – the first magazine dedicated to women in sports. Jorgensen was a co-founder and the President. The magazine was launched as a 16-page insert in Glamour magazine with Billie Jean King on the cover. The magazine was started in 1974 and sold to Redbook’s publisher in 1976, having reached a monthly circulation of 200,000.

During that brief two-year period, the magazine got help from Ms. Magazine publisher Gloria Steinem and singer Helen Reddy. Notable employees included editor Rosalie Wright who became the editor of Sunset, writer Anne Lamott who is now a serial book author and intern Sally Ride who became America’s first female astronaut.

Jorgensen later moved to Los Angeles in 1978, to head up a television production company and shortly thereafter went back to starting companies.

Jorgensen & Company – a celebrity business management company where Jorgensen was the founder and senior partner – Clients included; actors, Sharon Stone, Teri Hatcher, Lily Tomlin, Sharon Gless, Judge Reinhold,Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly and Tracy Scoggins – writers Douglas Adams ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe’ ,John Hughes ‘Home Alone, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club’, Ronald Shusett ‘Alien, Total Recall’, Dan O’Bannon, Diane English ‘Murphy Brown’ and Jane Wagner ‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’.

Western Equity – a real estate development and investment company. Jorgensen was a co-founder and general partner with Dr. David Schoenstadt. The company developed several historic rehabilitations in Chicago and Kansas City as well as developing commercial and warehouse facilities in the Midwest.

Preferred Physicians Mutual Risk Retention Group – a medical malpractice insurance company. Jorgensen was a co-founder with Dr. David Schoenstadt. The company specializes in malpractice insurance solely for anesthesiologists.

Jim Jorgensen Books

Jorgensen has written two books; Nothing Ventured published in 2007 and The Happy Class published in 2014. The Happy Class book is shown on Facebook with 150,000 fans.