John Pappajohn :: essays research papers

John Pappajohn was born July 31, 1928 in St. Luke's Greece to George and Maria Pappajohn. His father was a U.S. citizen and thus he is a U.S. citizen by birthright. He immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 9 months with his mother and they joined his father in Mason City. Iowa. In 1961, he married Mary L. Limberis of Minneapolis, Minnesota and the two of them have a daughter, Ann Pappajohn, who resides in New York. Mr. Pappajohn attended Mason City public schools and then attended the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, and received a bachelor's degree in business in 1952. Upon graduation from college, he started his own insurance business. In 1962, he moved to Des Moines and organized the Guardsman Life Insurance Company. He was Chairman of the Board of Guardsman Insurance from 1962 to 1969, at which time he sold his interest and dedicated himself full time to venture capital investments. He organized Equity Dynamics Inc. in 1969 and continues as its President today. He also organized Pappajohn Capital Resources (a venture capital fund) in 1969. Pappajohn Capital Resources is well known on Wall Street as a venture capital fund primarily investing in high tech, medical and healthcare projects. He has over 35 portfolio companies in his fund and has averaged over 68% annual return on investments for over 25 years. At the present time, he serves as director on the following company Boards: Radiologix, Inc., Dallas, TX PACE Health Systems Inc., Des Moines, IA Allion Healthcare, Inc., Huntington Station, NY Logisticare, Atlanta, GA Patient Infosystems, Inc., Rochester, NY MC Informatics, Inc., Irvine, CA. He has served as director in over 40 public companies and also serves as a director for many private companies. He is a member of many professional organizations including The Society of Financial Analysts, Association for Corporate Growth, National Association of Corporate Directors and the Association for Investment Management and Research. He was a Horatio Alger Award recipient in 1995 and serves as a member of the Board of Directors and on the Executive Committee for the Horatio Alger Association. He also is on the Board of Trustees for Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, Greece, the University of Iowa Foundation Board of Trustees, Iowa City, IA., and formerly a Trustee for Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA. He was named Iowa Business Leader of the Year in 1992 and was inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame in 1996. He served as a member of the Advisory Board for the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. He was initially appointed by President Ronald Reagan and re-appointed by President George Bush.