TCSD CONVERSATION WITH:
”
Jay Lewis
“
By Craig Zelent
I recently had the opportunity to talk triathlon with a
guy who has no fear. Jay
Lewis is not afraid
to try anything.
Jay is not afraid
to try any sport or
change careers and
he certainly has not
been afraid to get
involved in a leadership
role with TCSD. Please
join me and get to
Jay after
completin
know Jay!
g his 2
nd ever tr
i. TCSD B
eginner R
ace on Co
sports did
ronado.
Craig: What
you do as a kid?
Jay: Growing up in South Carolina I did what
normal kids my age did – played baseball, soccer, football, swam, biked, and hunted. (I did
say I was from South Carolina). On my 12th
birthday I was given a surfboard and my love of
surfing started. It had a big impact on my life
and in college, I co-founded the “Surfing Club”,
which is funny because the University of South
Carolina was about 2½ hours from any beach!
Also in college, I lifted weights regularly and
became the VP of our body building club. I never
competed but enjoyed the commitment and
camaraderie of the members. Fast forward to
today, there are some sports I don’t do often
(weight lifting) and others I do frequently such
as surfing, SUPing (stand up paddling), yoga,
mountain biking, snowboarding, road biking and
of course, triathlons.
Where did your career take you prior to mov-
ing to San Diego in 2005?
Jay: After graduating college with
degrees in marketing, international business and
Spanish I moved to Los Angeles and worked at
several advertising agencies during the Dot com
bubble. After getting laid off at one of the agencies when we lost a client, I decided to get out
of account management and go into marketing
where I traveled the country doing promotional
marketing for clients such as Coca-Cola, Proctor
& Gamble and Nestle. I’ve been to every state in
the contiguous US and look forward to going to
Alaska and Hawaii at some point soon. While
traveling the country I came to San Diego for
work, and I fell in love with the city and chose
to make my home here.
I made another career decision in January of
this year, when I decided to get out of marketing after doing it for 17 years and get into sales,
where I can control my destiny and be rewarded
for performance. Currently, I