Engineering Spotlight
Jack Gin
Entrepreneur, mentor and UBC Engineering Alumnus
Reprinted from Ingenuity | Summer 2009
Spend some time talking to UBC civil engineering graduate (BASc ’83) and entrepreneur Jack Gin, and you’re certain to be on the receiving end of some sage mentoring wisdom – either in the form of practical advice or an inspirational message born of experience.
Mentoring is one of Gin’s passions. It’s important to him to give back to the next generation and help them succeed because, he says, “I never had a business mentor. If I had, it might have helped me avoid some of the pitfalls and sharks of the business world along the way.” By most measuring sticks, Gin says he is regarded as successful, but that success came despite having had “a tough ride”. He is philosophical about those bumps in the road and thankful for them. He explains, “They were part of my journey and they lead to greater things. I think they have also made me more useful as a mentor.” Despite the successful outcome of his bumpy ride, he maintains, “It would have been beneficial if I had started to build an advisory board of trusted relationships earlier in my career.”
Gin never set out to be an entrepreneur. He describes himself in his early career as someone who was, “A very good employee who was good at working within industrial and technology environments.” In the 90’s he held senior positions at Weatherhaven and Silent Witness, where he masterminded the company’s entry into the global security industry. When it was “time to move on” from Silent Witness, he had the necessary knowledge and experience to launch his own company. In 1997, Gin founded Extreme CCTV, eventually growing the business to become a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of “extreme condition” surveillance equipment. His eleven year journey with the company included taking it public and then selling it to German technology giant Robert Bosch in 2008. In 2007, Gin received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the technology category.
Gin credits UBC for skills that have proven useful to him both as an engineer and an entrepreneur. He says there were so many courses and so much material to cover, “We became conditioned to working together as colleagues to solve problems quickly and to work in teams.” However, he admits that at the time, they didn’t realize how much knowledge they were acquiring. “Working in teams was a survival mechanism. We wanted to get the work done as quickly as possible so we could get on with extra-curricular activities that the engineers of UBC were known for.”
These days, Gin still acts in an advisory capacity to Bosch, but spends most of his time with other entrepreneurs on ventures that are technology oriented, clean, green and/or humanitarian. He has also established a Capital Pool Corporation (CPC) and is looking for a suitable private company that needs capital. In all of these ventures, his role is that of mentor, advisor, director and/or investor. He says, “My business goals haven’t changed. I still want to build good, solid, sustainable businesses that bring significant wealth, except now I operate from the sidelines.”
On mentoring, he says he has no criteria for choosing who he mentors, except that it comes down to the person. He says, “They have to have demonstrated desire and integrity, and I have to like them.” Gin believes that for him, giving back is a “natural responsibility”.
At his 25-year class reunion in 2008, Gin initiated the first “Five for Twenty-Five” alumni event: a five minute synopses of the 25-year careers of several members of his class. Gin has since turned it into an annual event for other 25-year engineering grad classes to share their stories. Gin hopes that Five for Twenty-Five will, “Inspire and instill confidence in the next generation of engineers and let them see what trails others have blazed before them.” The only former engineering grad Gin recalls coming in to speak to the class of ’83 was business tycoon Nelson Skalbania. He says, “The fact that he would take the time to do that made a big impression on me.”
Gin has some mentoring advice for students: “Stay in school and finish well. The world rewards those who can finish” and “The act of doing things gets results. Getting results will give you the confidence and the courage to succeed. When producing results becomes your orientation, you won’t have to look for opportunities, they will find you.”
