From 2017, John R. Dallas, Jr. is Founder and Chief Enlightenment Officer (CEO) of Enclave Academy, a not-for-profit collaborative microlearning initiative.  For entrepreneurs and other leaders of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, its psychology-based coursework, coaching, and collaboration strengthen essential thinking skills and mindsets.

 

Since 2005, John continues to also lead Hillview Partners, a consortium of independent consultants, coaches, and speakers, all specialists in strategic alignment of people, money, and technology. 

 

He is on the Advisory Board for the Business and Entrepreneurship Program at Harper College, and frequently serves as a judge for high school and college competitions for aspiring entrepreneurs.

 

From 1974, he launched and served as president of four tech-enabled national service companies, three based in New York City, and one in Fairfax, Virginia: ETX Corp., Group Concepts Capital Corp., Market Access Resources Corp., and CreditComm Services Inc., renamed Intersections Inc.; formerly a Nasdaq company that was acquired in 2021 by a holding company.

 

In 1999, he was recruited to serve as President and CEO of Chicago Title Credit Services, Inc., then the nation’s leading aggregator of consumer credit data to be used by major banks, mortgage lenders, and others in the financial arena.

John is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he launched a public relations start-up venture during his freshman year at Duquesne University, while majoring in journalism and mass communications.  In New York, while leading his second venture, ETX Corporation, he continued his studies at Columbia University.

 

He is author of We Need to Have a Word, Words of Wisdom, Courage, and Patience for Work, Home, and Everywhere, a 438-page book that’s routinely quoted worldwide, and available on Amazon and all major booksellers.

 

From the start of Silicon Valley’s Founder Institute’s Chicago chapter, John signed-on as a certified mentor.  On behalf of Founder Institute, he traveled to speak in New York City, Washington, DC, and Medellín, Colombia.  For several years, he ranked internationally among the Institute’s Top 100 certified mentors.  In 2014, he earned the Mentor in Excellence Award from the Chicago Chapter of Founder Institute. 

 

John is a frequent guest speaker at universities, colleges, high schools, and other organizations.  From teenage years, John remains active in various nonprofit groups, including his transatlantic involvement in Scotland’s entrepreneurial support ecosystem.

 

At the invitation of Cook County Board Commissioner, Dr. Dennis Deer, he testified in support of the historic 2018 ordinance to create the Cook County Commission for Small Businesses.  For Elk Grove Village, IL’s Community Character Coalition, John chairs the Business Leaders Liaison Committee.  Collaborating with Commissioner Deer and Commissioner Kevin Morrison, he’s a vocal advocate for the County’s resources for small businesses.    

 

John’s decades of being a frontline champion for experiential entrepreneurship education include his years of service to Silicon Valley’s Founder Institute, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative, Bunker Labs, a national entrepreneurship transition program for military veterans, various community colleges, and numerous other high-impact learning initiatives.  Currently he serves on the Advisory Board for Harper College’s Entrepreneurship Education Program, where he also lectures.  For high schools, John is a speaker, pitch competition judge, and mentor.   

 

In collaboration with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, John was among the 2007 founding team for Chicago Urban League’s acclaimed nextONE Entrepreneurship Accelerator.  On Fox TV-Chicago, John frequently appeared on nextTV, the four-time Emmy Award-winning FoxTV television series featuring real-world entrepreneurial stories.

 

In association with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), he served on the Board of Directors of Chicago Technology Park (TechPark) at Illinois Medical District (IMD).  He was the first Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Leadership Arts Certificate Program of The University of Chicago’s Graham School.  For two years, John was Chairman of Technology Leadership Forum (TechForum) at the Union League Club of Chicago.  In early 2001, region-wide he was voted by peers among the top 100 technology leaders.  

 

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For a bit more depth about his early career journey, while he was majoring in journalism and mass communications at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, John started a student-run public relations service for high-profile nonprofit groups such as: Junior Achievement (entrepreneurship education since 1919), The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts.  Shortly after Oliver Realty Inc. and other companies hired his award-winning young team, in 1972 a regional advertising agency acquired his startup business.

 

At age 22, John was named the parent company’s Vice President, Public Relations.  One year later, he was recruited to Manhattan for a leadership post with Reddy Kilowatt Inc., serving the electric utility industry.

 

For 12 years in New York, John ran ETX Corporation, a widely celebrated pioneer in electronic publishing.  ETX supported Wall Street communication objectives of publicly traded corporations.  Aligning telephony and computing in ways that had never been monetized, if ever attempted, John personally developed a system to facilitate real-time remote processing of professionally edited and verified printed records of corporate, financial, and media events held worldwide (e.g., time-sensitive edited transcripts, and other reports from stockholder meetings, securities analyst sessions, press conferences, etc.).

 

The ETX client roster of hundreds included 27 of top 50 Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, GE, GM, Ford, ITT, Exxon, Mobil, AT&T, et al.  Some of the world’s largest banks were clients.  Media clients included ABC, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Bloomberg Business Week, and other giants.  High-profile leaders in academia, law, auditing, finance, advertising, PR, and politics were also clients of ETX Corporation.

 

In 1976, 1980, and 1984, John negotiated to win exclusive contracts for ETX to electronically publish and distribute the only official transcriptional records of the historic United States Presidential and Vice-Presidential Debates, and many high-profile Congressional debates. After two Presidential election cycles, John secured contracts with ABC-TV News and NBC-TV News for broadcast-based publications focused on the purpose, function, and future of the U.S. Electoral College.  This vast body of work resides in the U.S. Library of Congress. 

 

Since 1966, locally and nationally, John is occasionally interviewed on ABC, CBS, and NBC.  Also, he appears on radio talk programs and podcasts, and is included in newspaper articles, blogs, and online information resources.  Almost daily, through Twitter and other social media channels, John offers thousands of decision-making followers a steady stream of leadership insight and entrepreneurship education value.

 

John is elected and ordained for life as a Deacon and an Elder in the Church of Scotland-influenced Presbyterian Church U.S.A.  He held elected posts and chaired committees in large-membership Presbyterian faith communities in Pittsburgh, New York, and Chicago.

 

Daughter Jennifer Gray Dallas lives in Pittsburgh, works in the consumer credit data industry, and continues her lifelong passion for writing and performing poetry.  For over 23 years, John lives in Chicago near the lakefront.  He is divorced.  John has no plans to retire (or remarry).