Dennis Jones
Founder
Jones Pharma
Laureate 2006
Dennis’s first job was sweeping floors and dusting the sales barn at his father’s farm implements dealership in Marshall, Illinois. At age 12, Dennis worked demonstrating farm implements on tractors. And, like many children of that time, a percentage of his pay went to his parents for room and board. An ad on the back of a comic book initiated Dennis’s first sales success – seeds! Carrying a bright red sales box, built with the help of his dad, Dennis sold enough seeds to achieve his dream, a Red Rider BB Gun. Dennis joined the Marine Corps after high school and married childhood sweetheart, Judith Ann Pearce, in 1958. Work, supporting a growing family of two children, Denise and Matthew, took precedence over going to college. A sales job in insurance honed Dennis’s marketing skills and led to a job in pharmaceutical sales in St. Louis. While in sales, Dennis recognized a business opportunity in pharmaceuticals that no one had undertaken. This led to the creation of Jones Pharma. Jones Pharma soon became a public company and, for a decade, in the 1990’s, Jones Pharma’s return to investors was the largest of any pharmaceutical company and the second largest on Wall Street. Dennis stated that: “One of my greatest satisfactions in building the business was building the financial success of our employees and shareholders”. Using Ewing Kaufmann’s model, Dennis initiated one of the first employee stock option programs in the pharmaceutical industry, a move that resulted in creating significant wealth for many good employees. Since selling the company in 2000, the Jones’s focus centers on philanthropy and family. With a mission to support initiatives which empower individuals to succeed in life, the Jones Family Foundation is investing Dennis’s success into better and brighter futures for others.
Select a button below to see how you or your organization can get involved with Junior Achievement of Greater St. Louis, Inc..
Donate Volunteer Request A Program