Jeff Rounce, MBA

Jeff Rounce is a fourth-generation entrepreneur (small business creator) who believes strongly in the importance of local community. He has embraced the virtues and opportunities of the South Sound region since arriving here almost four decades ago. As his vocational career has transformed and his company expanded to serve business consumers in the marketplace, it was his good fortune to meet, engage with, and serve a broad spectrum of persons and interests. Business Examiner Media was also well served by dozens of employees over the years, from high school interns who grew into business careers of their own to several former staff members now leading their own entrepreneurial lives, and no less than four former BE employees who are today classroom teachers and educational leaders.

An active proponent (by voice and example) for the engagement by business leaders in the betterment of their own communities, he has enjoyed: more than 30 years of Rotary service, including club leadership; board of trustee terms with Olympia-Thurston County and Tacoma-Pierce County Chambers of Commerce; volunteer board terms with two local Visitor & Convention Bureaus, Tacoma Symphony, Clover Park Technical College Foundation and Point Defiance Zoo Society among others over his years.

He is presently on the Executive Advisory Board for School of Business at Pacific Lutheran University and has a similar role at Saint Martin’s University, after similarly serving the Business Leadership Program at University of Puget Sound for five years. For many years in his earlier business life, Business Examiner provided a team of employees to bring lessons of Free Enterprise into the classroom as Junior Achievement volunteers, until too many BE staff members were motivated by that experience to pursue full-time teaching careers.

From his current vantage point as a septuagenarian, it is increasingly clear that the goals we sometimes seek became less important, whether we achieve them or not, with the passage of time and creation of new ambitions or have changes in our lives. What remains significant is each individual’s opportunity to explore their own life’s possibilities, identify their interests and passions, and then have a fair chance to pursue those goals. Without regard to achieving or subsequently modifying those targets, being cognizant of an individual’s importance to society as a whole is important — and that seems to encapsulate a major goal of higher education.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• Adjunct Instructor, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Pacific Lutheran University, 2018-present
• Adjunct Instructor Marketing, Marketing Management, Saint Martin’s University, 2018-present
• Adjunct Instructor, Business Writing, City University, 1986-87

WORK EXPERIENCE

• 32 years as entrepreneur in local business journal news coverage & company manager/owner  1985–2018
• Ten years as television news reporter, editor and manager  1975–1985
• Five years as Public Affairs Officer and regional Advertising Director, U.S. Air Force  1970–1975