ABOUT DAMON
Damon’s Biography
Damon Changing Lives
DAMON J DUNN
EXPERIENCE
LAGUNITA FRANCHISE OPERATIONS, LLC AL, AR, LA, MS, NM, OK
Founder and CEO, a Dunkin Brand Operator
38-store multi-state franchise backed by Cooper Management and Fargo Investments (Freeman Spogli)
• Grew from initial 5-store platform through reinvestment of cash flows and SLB initiative
• Executed growth plan that led to securing non-recourse financing and full equity payback within 5 years
Acquisitions and Development: sourced 7 tuck-in acquisitions and 18 de novo locations
• Oversaw underwriting, pro forma analysis, and realization of projections for all acquisitions
• Engineered strategies to finance acquisitions via SLB program and to finance the businesses for free
• Manage construction, entitlement process, and turn-over of projects working with municipal agencies
Management duties and operational accomplishments: manage 520+ employees across 6 states
• Developed organizational structure to operate decentralized operations through processes and systems
• Professionalized the P&L’s to maximize top-line sales and 4-Wall EBITDA
• Developed custom KPIs to allow weekly interventions that led to consistent oversight of performance
• Oversaw the development of custom training manuals for GM’s, Area Directors and Regional Directors
TRICOR CORPORATION CA, AZ, NC, FL
Co-Founder and Partner, Real Estate Development and Investment Firm
Principal owner of company that sourced, developed, advised, and invested in 31 retail properties across U.S.
• Sourced opportunities with strong downside protection based on tenant strength and intrinsic asset value
• Equity value creation via projects completed under budget and market value from rental income realized
• Negotiated purchase, lease, tenant buyout, easement covenant and restriction, quit claim, remediation, and other agreements dealing with acquisition and construction of retail development projects
• Raised private equity and debt to finance projects; negotiated documents to support the financing, construction, and disposition of assets; key lending partners (Bank of America, Wells Fargo)
Investments Realized: 237,000 sq ft and $90 mm AUM. Representative transactions:
• Eckerd Drug Stores: sourced, developed, and invested in 6 properties in NM from 2003-2006. Sold to investment partner 18 months after project completion; realized 5x cash-on-cash return for investors
• Walgreens: sourced, developed, and invested in 11 properties in FL and CA from 2005-2010. Sold to investment partner 18 months after project completion; realized 5x cash-on-cash return for investors
• CVS Pharmacy: CVS Preferred developer that sourced and developed 14 in Southern CA area for fees
SECRETARY OF STATE OF CALIFORNIA SACRAMENTO, CA
Republican Nominee
First-time political candidate winning Republican nomination before losing in general election
• Raised approx $1 mm in contributions, recruited seven-person staff to manage all aspects of campaign
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE FL, OH, NY, TX
Professional Football Player
• Played for Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys
STANFORD UNIVERSITY HOOVER FELLOW PALO ALTO, CA
• Published book via Pacific Research Institute on policy changes for low-income families to build wealth
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL EXECUTIVE EDUCATION CAMBRIDGE, MA
• NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial program 2005
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PALO ALTO, CA
• Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy
• 4-Year Varsity Football and Track letterman, NCAA Academic Scholarship, All-PAC 10 Honors
• Time Magazine Leaders in America 40 under 40
• Ordained Baptist minister
DAMON’S BIO
The Question
Why do two people standing in the same reality create different futures?
The same is true of teams, organizations, and companies. Same market. Same moment. Same resources. Opposite outcomes.
Damon Dunn has spent his life inside that question. First as the boy it was asked about. Then as the researcher who studied it. Then as the operator who tested the answers from three chief executive chairs.
The Trailer
Damon was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to a sixteen year old single mother, and raised in a three bedroom trailer with ten people inside it. His father was killed when he was three. Hunting and fishing were how the family ate.
The roads ran out of that trailer park in every direction. Everyone lived on the same roads. Almost no one left.
At eight, Damon understood that nobody in his world knew the way out. So he changed what he was looking for. He wrote one sentence on notebook paper and taped it to the ceiling above his bed.
“I am going to earn a football scholarship.”
The paper stayed up for ten years. The scholarship arrived.
The Proof
Recruited to Stanford by Bill Walsh, Damon lost his champion when Walsh retired. The new staff had not chosen him. Same roster. Same field. He made himself undeniable.
- Two time football team captain and four year letterman in football and track
- All-Pac-10 selection and NCAA Academic Scholarship recipient
- Degree in Public Policy, Stanford University
- Four NFL seasons: Jaguars, Browns, Jets, Cowboys
- Coached by Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Tyrone Willingham, and Tom Coughlin
The Study
After football, Damon returned to the question. Ten years of formal research on one subject.
- Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford
- Fellow, Pacific Research Institute
- Author of Punting Poverty, a published study of upward mobility
The question never changed.
Why do people stay where they started, and what actually moves them?
The Chairs
Then he tested the answers from the chair, in industries where every operator holds the same brand, the same products, and the same market.
- Co-founder, Tricor: sourced and developed 31 retail properties nationwide, roughly $90 million in assets under management, anchored by Walgreens, CVS, and Eckerd, with 5x cash on cash returns for investors
- Founder and CEO, Lagunita Franchise Operations: grew a five store Dunkin’ platform to 38 stores across six states, more than 500 people, and roughly $30 million in revenue, returning investors’ full equity within five years
- CEO, Sign Talent Solutions: global workforce solutions for the FASTSIGNS franchise network and the sign and graphics industry
Different industries. Different chairs. The same conditions as everyone else.
Different futures.
Paving the Path
Damon was the first one out, and he has spent his life turning the path he cut into one others can walk, for students from the same neighborhoods and streets he came from.
- Director, East Palo Alto Stanford Summer Academy
- Associate pastor, Jerusalem Baptist Church
- James W. Lyons and J.E. Wallace Sterling Awards for service
- Make-A-Wish Foundation and founder of the Fighting Giants Ministry
- Founder, Joshua Project leadership ministry
- Founder, Long Beach College Prep Academy, which sent 158 students from low income families to college
LOCKED IN
Today, Damon helps leaders launch and sustain inflection points.
He is the creator of the LOCKED IN keynote, delivered worldwide, and author of LOCKED IN: The Bold Create the Future, forthcoming from Matt Holt Books.
It is his answer to the question his life kept asking.
BOOK QUOTES
from Damon’s Book
“Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare”
“I have long led a life of public service. I am a relentless advocate for helping people emerge from poverty, which is why I published a book via the Pacific Research Institute on policy changes for low-income families to build wealth. Since my time serving others while at Stanford and the NFL, I started the Joshua Project, a leadership development ministry that mentors aspiring young Christian leaders and the Long Beach College Prep Academy which sent 158 students, from low-income families to college.”
PRAISE FOR “PUNTING POVERTY”
“Damon Dunn grew up in abject poverty, leveraged his athletic talent into a Stanford University education, and is now building several successful businesses. In contrast to a life of dependency followed by his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and millions of others trapped in permanent government-assisted poverty, his story shows the real path to upward economic mobility.”
“Damon Dunn exposes the hypocrisy of those who say they care about poor people while simultaneously driving up the cost of living. Empowering people to build wealth is the true liberator and equalizer. To do so, government must fight institutional discrimination, but not kill individual initiative and responsibility.”
-Rob Lapsley, President of the California Business Roundtable
“Damon Dunn adds his important voice to the growing debate on how, as the economy and the nature of work change….we can better organize America’s safety net in ways all Americans are vested in our economy and our country.”
-Michael Jay Boskin, Ph.D., T.M. Friedman Professor of Economics and Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
“Damon’s book is a serious look at how America has failed its poorest citizens and how to reopen the door to opportunity for them.”
-Mike Shires, Ph.D. Professor, Pepperdine University
“Damon’s book provides an entirely new approach to building a safety net in America – one that follows the individual from job to job…and stops vesting benefits with the job to simply benefit whoever fills it from time to time.”
-Robert Apodaca, Executive Director of United Latinos Vote