As founder and CEO of Global Custom Commerce, Jay was an early mover in e-Commerce. In 1993 he bootstrapped his website, built for just $1500 and operated from his garage, into the world’s #1 online window covering store, Blinds.com. In January 2014, Global Custom Commerce merged with The Home Depot. Jay is still active as CEO, driving and integrating GCC’s platform into Home Depot’s interconnected retail strategy.
His early career was as a CPA, and in 1987 he and his wife started a small brick and mortar retail store selling custom window coverings. They sold their store in 2001 and went online full-time.
GCC has been recognized as The Best Place to Work in Houston, Top 5 Workplaces in Texas, one of the 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in America, the American Marketing Association Marketer of the Year, and many others.
Jay is currently on the Innovation Board of The XPRIZE, whose mission is to bring about "radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity". He is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, has earned a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Houston Technology Center, and writes a column for Inc. Magazine. Jay is a popular speaker on how company culture and authentic core values drive profitable growth.
The Rotary Club of Houston is a group of business leaders working together collaboratively to impact positive change in our community and around the world, operating consistently with Rotary's motto of Service Above Self. Some of our service projects include:
The club also works actively in many other areas including mentoring elementary school youth, giving assistance to ex-offenders, and international projects, including Polio Plus.
The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics is The Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy. This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. It asks the following four questions: "Of the things we think, say or do:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
AND AS THE ROTARY CLUB OF HOUSTON SAYS
5. Will it be FUN!
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How Rotary has changed to help people get clean water for longer than just a few years.
Profile: A vine ideaHeidi KühnRotary Club of San FranciscoHeidi Kühn arrived in Utsunomiya, Japan, in 1975, a few months after the end of the Vietnam War. She was a Rotary Youth Exchange
Stephanie Woollard went from Down Under to the top of the world to find out if one person can make a difference.
Rotary clubs in Canada invest in the PACT program, an urban peace initiative that aims to break the cycle of youth
Rotary peace fellow creates Red Dot Foundation to fight street harassment and violence against women.
