Joe Jack Wallace

Joe Jack Wallace is proud of his roots having been raised in Sturgis, Kentucky that enjoys a population of under 2,000 people. His combination of a rural upbringing and a Stanford education set the stage for his ability to write about life as a high performer. Joe Jack has seen more than 1,000 articles published in blogs on topics from politics to technology. He ultimately believes in bold but simple actions that accomplish big goals. Joe Jack enjoys rock music, reading, running, travel, work, and family.

Career Highlights

Joe Wallace is the founding Managing Director of the Coachella Valley Innovation Hub (CViHub) and also serves as the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership’s (CVEP) CEO.

Wallace is a veteran of electro-optics industry having been a founder or principal in over 10 start-up businesses including one that became a public company on the NASDAQ stock exchange. He was graduated from Stanford University with an MS in Mechanical Engineering and completed the coursework for a PhD in engineering at UC Santa Barbara. He also has certifications in Cybersecurity from Harvard and the Internet of Things from MIT.

Wallace entered the world of mentoring entrepreneurs and businesses serving as the founding President and CEO of the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville, a start-up economic development agency. During his tenure he established Innovation Pointe, a technology business incubator, the EnGAGE program to advise small and medium business, and signed the Partnership Intermediary Agreement that made the entirety of the intellectual property of the Federal Lab Consortium available to businesses in the Evansville region.

He has served as a senior executive for most of his 35 year career in industries that range from the cutting edge technology of developing the erasable optical disc (CD ROM Burner) to providing professional home improvement services. He serves as an advisor to several businesses across the United States. This myriad of experience has enabled him to develop both a broad and deep understanding of technology, business and commercialization.

Wallace has been an invited speaker at symposia in the United States, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. He has served as the keynote speaker at many events and most recently at the International Chief Innovation Officer Summit in San Francisco. He has authored or co-authored papers that have been published in both trade and refereed journal and has authored more than 1,000 columns in an online political blog. Wallace has been the originator and/or manager of both patent and trademark portfolios for several companies. His first book Living Outside the Box is scheduled for publication in mid-2019.

Wallace was named the SBEMP Leader of the Year in 2016, the 2014 Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award Winner for the Inland Empire by the CSU San Bernardino College of Entrepreneurship, the Clean Air Award Winner by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and was a nominee for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2015 in the non-profit category. His businesses have been honored with awards including the Photonics Spectra Circle of Excellence Award, the R&D 100 Award, a CLEO (Council on Lasers & Electro Optics) Award, two Indiana Growth 100 Awards from the IU Kelley School of Business, and was a finalist for the MIRA Award Gazelle Division annually chosen by Techpoint. As an undergraduate, Wallace was named as one of 11 National Finalists by the Old Guard of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Wallace serves on the Executive Committee of the California State University Palm Desert Advancement Board, has served as a trustee of the University of Evansville and for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for which he has run 15 marathons raising over $100,000 for cancer research. In 2015 the Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce named CVEP and Wallace the recipients of the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy of Service Award.