James Jannard
Encyclopedia
James "Jim" Jannard is an American designer and businessman, and founder of eyewear and apparel company Oakley, Inc.
Oakley, Inc.
Oakley, Inc., based in Foothill Ranch, California, makes sport equipment including sunglasses, sports visors, and ski goggles, as well as watches, clothing, bags, backpacks, shoes, prescription glasses, football and hockey eyewear, Golf gear and other accessories...

 and RED Digital Cinema.

He sold Oakley in mid 2007 for over $2 billion and placed 376th in Forbes Magazine ranking of World's Billionaires in 2010, with a net worth of $3.0 billion.

He is also the founder and principal backer of RED Digital Cinema, a manufacturer of high-resolution digital motion-picture cameras used in productions designed for cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

 release. The company first showed a mock-up of their camera in April, 2006 at NAB 2006 and began shipping cameras on August 31, 2007.

In 2009 Jannard was named one of the 100 Most Creative People by Fast Company Magazine
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...

.

Early life

Jannard was born in 1949 and grew up in Alhambra, California. Jannard attended the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California until he dropped out in his 3rd year. He named the Oakley company after his dog, Oakley Anne, an English Setter
English Setter
The English Setter is a breed of dog. It is part of the Setter family, which includes red Irish Setters, Irish Red and White Setters, and black-and-tan Gordon Setters. It is a gun dog, bred for a mix of endurance and athleticism.- Appearance :...

..

Oakley

Jannard started Oakley in 1975 with $300. His first product was a handgrip he designed for motorcycles and BMX. In 1980 Jannard designed a goggle that was introduced to the market as the Oakley O/20 Goggle. In 1984 Jannard designed the first Oakley sunglass called the Oakley Eyeshade. Nine years later Oakley passed RayBan in worldwide sales. Oakley went public in 1995 with the ticker of OO on the NYSE. Jannard holds over 600 patents worldwide for his inventions. He was nicknamed "Mad Scientist" by Oakley employees in the 1980s. Jannard sold Oakley in 2007 for $2.2B making him one of the wealthiest people in the world.

RED Digital

In 2005 Jannard started RED Digital Cinema Camera Company. The company's first camera was the RED ONE and was supported by Peter Jackson and Steven Soderbergh. Feature films that have been shot on RED include David Fincher's The Social Network(2010), Contagion (2011), Ché (2008), District 9 (2009), Knowing (2009), Rabbit Hole (2010), Gamer (2009), Fair Game (2010), Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (2011) and many others.

The next generation RED cameras scheduled for release are called EPIC and SCARLET. EPIC is currently being used on several of the biggest budget Hollywood movies including Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit", The Amazing Spider-man", Ridley Scott's "Prometheus", "Jack the Giant Killer", "Contagion" (2011) and "Underworld 4" (2011).

Personal life

A keen photographer, he maintains a website of his own photographs. Jannard shot all of Oakley's ads and commercials for the first 20 years of Oakley history. He used high-end Canon
Canon Inc.
is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...

 equipment, including a 1DS
Canon EOS-1D
The Canon EOS-1D is a 4-megapixel professional digital single-lens reflex camera launched in November 2001. It was Canon's first professional-level digital camera developed and released by themselves, the previous D2000 being a collaborative effort with Kodak. It has a 1.3x crop factor with a CCD...

 camera and one of few EF 1200 mm lenses
Canon EF 1200mm lens
The EF 1200mm 5.6L USM is a super-telephoto prime lens that was made by Canon Inc. It uses an EF mount, and is compatible with the Canon EOS camera range...

 in existence. He now uses only RED EPIC cameras which he makes. Jannard is a camera collector and owns over 1,000 cameras. His photographic subjects include race cars that are sponsored by Oakley and RED Digital, his dogs, and his personal Bombardier Global Express Jet
Bombardier Global Express
The Bombardier Global Express is an ultra long range corporate and VIP high speed jet aircraft produced by Bombardier Aerospace. The Bombardier Global 5000 is a slightly shorter version...

.

He has owned four jets: a Falcon 20, a Falcon 50, and two Global Express
Bombardier Global Express
The Bombardier Global Express is an ultra long range corporate and VIP high speed jet aircraft produced by Bombardier Aerospace. The Bombardier Global 5000 is a slightly shorter version...



He is married and has four children. Jim lives on Spieden Island
Spieden Island
Spieden Island is a privately owned island in the San Juan Archipelago in the U.S. state of Washington...

 in the state of Washington and his islands Kaibu
Kaibu
Kaibu is an island in Fiji's Lau archipelago. A 22.4 kilometer-long reef encompasses Kaibu and the neighbouring island of Yacata, from which Kaibu is separated by a lagoon. The island, which has an area of 20 square kilometers, is located 56 kilometers west of Vanua Balavu...

 and Vatu Vara
Vatu Vara
Vatu Vara Island lies in the northwest sector of Fiji's northern Lau Group of islands, 32 km west of Mago Island and some 60 km south-west of Vanua Balavu at Lat: 17° 26'00 S Long: 179° 31'00 W....

in Fiji. He currently has 12 grandchildren.'.

External links

  • http://www.jimjannard.com/ - Personal website
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