Jimmy’s Blog

The Redskins lost to their dreaded rivals, the Dallas Cowboys last night 14 – 10.   It’s a bummer to lose to a NFC East rival at home.  But, hats off to both teams for playing a hard-hitting, well-played game.   Romo did his best despite his injured pinky … and Barber ran all over the ‘Skins in the 4th quarter.  But, fortunately, the Skins are still in the middle of the play-off hunt.

There’s so many memories from the Dallas-Washington rivalry … some good, some bad.   It’s still definitely one of the best rivalries in the NFL.

It is interesting how one’s perspective changes.  It used to be that we would gloat in victory and totally be bummed out in defeat.  The next day would stink if your favorite team lost to a dreaded rival.   But, as one gets older and other things start to matter more, whether your favorite team won or lost takes on less weight.

For me, this has been a tough personal year with the passing of my Father.   We used to watch the Redskins games on TV together nearly every Sunday.  And, I spoke about my Father’s passion for the ‘Skins during the eulogy I delivered.

So, as personal situations change … the global economic crisis affects so much … watching Sports is still fun and a relief, but it’s no longer the most important thing in the world to have your favorite team win all the time.  That being said, Go ‘Skins!  Go Caps!  Go Nationals!  Go Wizards!  Go Hoyas!

It’s not too often that a city can boast the greatest player in their respective sport plays for the home team.  But, Washington, DC can make that claim — the world’s best hockey player, Alexander Ovechkin, plays for our hometown Washington Capitals.

Alex showed off his amazing skills again last night with a last-second goal that tied the game 5 – 5 with the NJ Devils.  They did lose the game in OT, but they earned a point.  After a fairly slow start (for him), Ovechkin has been on fire lately as the Caps have played great hockey and reclaimed first place in the Southeast Division.

I first met Alex on his second day in the U.S.   One of my mentors, Ted Leonsis, who’s our Vice-Chairman, Emeritus at AOL and majority owner of the Capitals, pinged me a few summers ago and said his new number one draft pick had just arrived in the U.S. and he wanted to show him some cool things to do in the U.S.  So, on his second day here, we took him to Baltimore to see the Ravens play the Redskins (pre-season game).

We did our best to explain the rules of the NFL to him.  Since he grew up in Russia, he had seen very little NFL action.  At half-time, I took him from the suite down to the field so he could do an interview on Comcast SportsNet as well as witness the fast-paced, hard-hitting action up close.   He was extremely impressed with the size, the speed, the trash-talking and the physicality of NFL players.

Ironically, he brings the same type of action to the ice.  Not only is he a great scorer, but he’s extremely hard-hitting and a good passer.   It should be a great joy for DC natives to be able to watch “Alexander the Great” for many, many years to come.   A recipient of the Art Ross, Rocket Richard and Hart memorial trophies, it’s amazing to watch him in person.

Ted and his terrific partners deserve a great team for their commitment to the community and for providing a young up-and-coming team on the ice.  Fortunately, they’ve already started drawing well — the Verizon Center has been packed.  It’ll get more crowded, fun and action-packed in the winter months.

Let’s go Caps!

This going to be an interesting weekend in Washington, DC with the G-20 Summit, featuring 20 world leaders, in town to discuss how to combat the global recession that’s currently going on.  It’s hard to say how much will actually get done in only two days worth of meetings, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.  There’s supposed to have a more lengthy follow-up meeting next March (after Obama is fully in place as our new President).

It’s hard to imagine the security detail and preparation that must be done in order to ensure the safely of all of the global leaders.   I had dinner last night at Founding Farmers, which is located at 19th and Penn, right next to the World Bank and IMG and three blocks from the White House.  They had already blocked parking on many of the nearby streets.  It’s only going to get more intense as the leaders start arriving today.

One of the unique things about living in the DC area is seeing the Presidential Motorcade — which is an unbelievable sign of power as they block streets and the official car is escorted by DC Police, US Secret Service and more.  It’s a cool thing to witness.

But, this weekend will be even more hectic as each one of visiting dignitaries will have their own official motorcade — which means traffic will be a mess this weekend.  Guess I’ll be riding the Metro this weekend!

We held our annual Leadership Council meeting for GWU’s Tourism and Hospitality Management Dept last night.   After getting update from the dept leaders, we held a two-hour dinner for the undergraduate and graduate students.  There were four presentations from LC members, then a lively discussion with students at the various tables we were assigned to sit.

I guess it might be interesting that I have both my undergrad and grad degrees from AU but teach at Georgetown and sit on the Leadership Council at GWU.  The bottom line is that regardless of the school, it’s great to be able to teach and mentor students, give back, share best practices, etc.

I love hearing from the students, especially as they start to make their way into the business world and up the corporate ladder.  It’s also terrific to see some students go on to graduate school while others are involved in Teach for America.  I also ran into one of my top students from the GU class on Tues evening … he’s now in the Navy as a young officer and is about to embark on a 6-month journey in a submarine.  I couldn’t be prouder of him — all my best to Hunter!

Oh, and to keep the DC college theme going on, I’ll be attending my first basketball game at Howard Univ tomorrow night.  We’ll be there to watch Craig Robinson, the new head coach at Oregon State and the brother-in-law of Barack Obama, make his debut.  A few good friends of mine played hoops with Craig at Princeton and we’ll all be there to support him.

Last night, I attended the screening of “Kicking It” at Georgetown University.  My mentor, Ted Leonsis, is the Producer of this terrific documentary about the “Homeless World Cup.”  The documentary made its’ debut at the Sundance Film Festival this past January and is being distributed by ESPN.   The movie is truly heart-warming and uplifting.

This is Ted’s second documentary … last year, his much-acclaimed “Nanking” garnered awards at Sundance.

Ted has coined the term, “filmanthropy,” which he describes as “shining a light on a difficult subject and activating discussion.”   To learn more about this term, go to Ted’s blog at http://www.tedstake.com.

After the screening was over, Ted and the director of the film, Susan Koch, conducted a 30-minute Q&A with Georgetown students, faculty and alumni.

Then, members and supporters of Georgetown’s new Sports Management program headed over to 1789 for an excellent dinner and two hours of animated conversation.

Yesterday was a long day … from the 7:00 am breakfast seminar with Monte Jade to working all day to attending the screening and dinner at Georgetown, which ended at 11:00 pm but it was a wonderful and productive time.

As I wrote last week, I attended a fantastic conference in New York … the 2008 Asian Leadership Summit where the CEO’s of leading global companies such as IBM, GE and HSBC discussed the importance of the markets in China and India.

This morning, I attended a Monte Jade event (the Washington, DC Chapter).   This organization, which focuses on science and technology, primarily in China, is another terrific organization.   This month’s event had three panels sessions … on VC’s, Entrepreneurs and Corporate M & A.

The event was packed full and there was excellent discussion and Q & A among the panelists and audience members.   Despite the down turn in the economy, there are definitely many, many outstanding business opportunities in both China and India.

I am going to become a member of Monte Jade and I encourage that that are interested in learning more about these opportunities to also consider joining the organization.

I had an excellent time at the Berman bat mitzvah yesterday.  My friend, Andy, the father of the bat mitzvah is one of the nicest and greatest guys I’ve ever met.   He and his lovely wife, Sabra, have four beautiful children.  Their second oldest was the one celebrating her bat mitzvah on Saturday.   She did an outstanding job at the ceremony.   She obviously put in lots of hours of practice.

Andy, who’ll officially become the Mayor of Mill Valley, CA, on Dec 1st is one-of-a-kind.   He was hugging and kissing everyone the whole day.   It was wonderful to see such joy and love in one room.

It was a short trip to SF … only 40 hours here … but I was able to have a great dinner in Palo Alto, toast my Father’s memory, spend time with Andy and his beautiful family, and make a couple of scenic drives across the great Golden Gate Bridge.

Now, it’s back to the aiport for a 5-hour flight back to D.C.  Sigh.

After a couple of days in New York, I came back to DC last night.  Then, I’m leaving this afternoon to fly to San Francisco.  The primary reason to go there is to attend the bat mitzvah for the daughter of a good friend, Andy Berman, who I used to work closely with at AOL — he did our business development deals for AOL Sports while my team and I managed the sports partnerships.

But, since the bat mitzvan ahd dinner will be on Saturday, I’m going to venture to Palo Alto on Friday night to have dinner w/ my friend, Melynda, who’s doing her residency at Stanford University.

Visiting Palo Alto will be special for me since that’s where my Father, who passed away earlier this year, lived while pursuing his PhD in Far Eastern Studies at Stanford.  That’s also where he learned to speak Japanese and play golf — of course, learning to speak Japanese helped him woo my Mother when he was assigned to Tokyo while he is the Army.  🙂

Thus, I’m looking forward to visiting both San Fran and Palo Alto, two of my Dad’s favorite places.  I will definitely will toast him at dinner tonight.

As I left the hotel at 7:00 am for the Asian Leadership Summit, there was definitely an electricity in the air in New York as the country woke to a new President-Elect.  People were smiling everywhere … change was definitely in the air.

And, many of the business executives that spoke at the conference were very excited about the upcoming change in leadership — particularly from the viewpoint of leaders and executives from Asia and Europe.

Speaking of the summit, it was fascinating to hear the viewpoints of CEO’s from leading global companies such as GE, IBM and HSBC.   The emergence of China and India as leading business economies is legit, as it was clearly illustrated by presenation after presentation.

The noted author, Thomas Friedman, was right … the “world is flat.”