Founders Day is an annual occasion when the whole school honors its founders, Mr. Allen and Mr. Stevenson. This year, we thought it would be interesting to hear from some of our alumni who are founders in their own right. Jennifer Ziplow, Alumni Relations Associate, interviewed several alumni to discover how Allen-Stevenson helped them develop the skills and passions that played a part in starting their particular businesses.
Jon Block ’89
Lamplighter: ALUMNI FOUNDERS
Tell me a little about yourself and the businesses you have founded.
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After Allen-Stevenson, I went to Choate Rosemary Hall then on to college at the University of Montana in Missoula. I think the decision to head out West was entrepreneurial in a sense and definitely honed my appreciation and love for the outdoors and a good sense of what a work life balance would be. I also got into construction which helped pay for much of my college costs plus having extra money to spend. This made me realize early on that I was an entrepreneur. I liked the business aspect and saw that whatever I put into construction I could get back out of it.
Jon Block ’89 with his family. I returned to New York during the internet boom. My Allen-Stevenson and Choate friends were on Wall Street and a part of the dot-com world which caught my attention. I found my way into recruiting for dot-com companies,
which got me involved in the industry without having hard skills in technology or engineering myself. It set the course for the present. I operate two companies today. The first is Botsford Associates, which I describe as a boutique consulting and strategic staffing firm. We focus on helping mostly financial services companies and banks figure out risk, regulatory and compliance challenges. I started Botsford Associates in late 2009. Prior to that I was a partner in another firm that didn’t survive the financial crisis. After the credit crisis in 2008, I started Botsford Associates after moving to Vail, Colorado, but our biggest areas geographically speaking in the U.S. and Canada are Chicago, New York, Toronto and London. We have over 120 consultants globally. The other company I co-founded, Petabloc, was started almost three years ago. My partner, David Peterka, and I, have known each other for over 15 years. We knew we could create a value-driven consulting company to help organizations across various industries move seamlessly into more modern technology. Often, we’re moving organizations out of physical servers into a public cloud environment like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. We have over 25 mid- to-senior level consultants who are able to both advise and implement solutions for organizations big and small.
The two companies share clients, so if they are facing regulatory or compliance challenges, they may also need help with cloud consulting, or vice versa. We can help them on all fronts.
What inspired you to start your own company and this particular business? I think having control of my work situation and being able to create a work life balance, which I value, is important. During the financial crisis, I took a trip out to Colorado and realized I could run my existing business from there, which gave me the idea to move to Vail, Colorado where I started my family. I have two boys, Stevie (8) and Lucas (6) with my wife Danielle. We have lived together in Vail, NYC and now Rincón, Puerto Rico... And this is all possible because of the way I set up my companies.
How did Allen-Stevenson influence where you are today? I don’t know why I have this in my head, but our head of school at the time was Desmond Cole. He was a character. He really made it okay to be what was called a ‘rascal’ or troublemaker. Now, as a parent, I’m struggling with my son who really does not like to be told what to do. He wants to do exactly what he wants to do. The more you push against it, the worse it is. And I think about how good Mr. Cole was at redirecting that energy towards something fun and productive. And there’s something that I think fits well from an entrepreneurial perspective— that mischievous thing. You have to figure out how to push the boundaries and Allen-Stevenson was a safe place to do that.
