August 31, 2016 Program: District Governor John Sullivan
District Governor John Sullivan will share his vision and goals for District 5190 during the 2016/17 Rotary year. The district's theme this year is "STARS" - Striving Together to Achieve Results.
John was born in Maine but grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. John attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and received a degree in Social Science with an option in Economics. After college, John served in the United States Army and attended the Defense Information School. John was assigned to Army Headquarters in Vietnam. There John was the Assistant Editor and a Combat Correspondent for The Army Reporter, a weekly newspaper. As part of this assignment, John worked at the Stars and Stripes printing plant in Tokyo supervising the production of his newspaper. During his military service, John met Sandy, whom he married in 1970.
After completing his military service, John was employed for nineteen years by a Fortune 100 company in a variety of management positions. During this time period, John returned to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and received his Masters of Business Administration degree. Thereafter John attended Southwestern University of Law where he earned his Juris Doctorate, cum laude. During his last seven years with the Fortune 100 Company, John was an Associate Counsel and served as chair of a company-wide contracts committee.
For five years, John was employed by two medium size law firms and focused his efforts on civil litigation. Thereafter, John formed his own firm and emphasized civil litigation and contract preparation and review. John retired from the active practice of law in 2010. Sandy, who had for many years worked in the retirement compliance area of several financial institutions retired at the same time.
John joined his first Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Placentia, in 2001 after being impressed by their wide-range of projects he learned about at a "Reverse Raffle" dinner. During his four plus years with the Placentia Club, John served as Club Secretary and participated in a home building project in Mexico.
When John and Sandy were getting ready to move to Pine Grove, CA he attended a make-up meeting at the Rotary Club of Jackson. Then DG Dave Bianchi was making his Club visit that night and discussed club activities. Impressed with these activities, John joined the Rotary Club of Jackson in 2005. John served as Club Secretary and during 2011-2012 was the Club President.
At the District level, John served as District Secretary for five years from 2009 to 2014 and has been a member of the District's training team. As part of the training team, he has been a trainer at District Assemblies, Rotary Leadership Institutes, and Grants Management Seminars. John also chaired the Technology Committee in 2013-2014 and chaired of the Grants Sub-committee in 2014-2015.
John and Sandy are both Paul Harris Fellows and members of the Bequest Society and he is a member of the Paul Harris Society.