Yusef Jackson

Background

About Yusef Jackson

Yusef D. Jackson is a private investor, lawyer, corporate advisor, and operator with more than 25 years of experience with a range of companies in industries including beverage distribution, media, technology, and government services. While varied and diverse, Mr. Jackson’s professional endeavors all draw on his passion to solve business problems from a people-first perspective. He always maintains a close connection with the fight for dignity, civil rights, and economic justice for disenfranchised people, especially African Americans, Latin Americans, LGBTQIA, and women. Mr. Jackson began his career at the corporate law firm of Mayer, Brown, and Platt. From there, he moved into the beverage distribution industry, acquiring the Chicago-based River North Sales & Service, a highly visible business selling Anheuser-Busch products, among others, which he successfully led as CEO for 15 years. In 2006, Mr. Jackson ventured into the media business, acquiring niche pop culture media company Radar Magazine. Over the next three years, he grew the outlet and led its transition from print to online. Most recently, Mr. Jackson supports transformation efforts at Aventiv Technologies, a leading provider of communication and technology to the corrections and government services sectors, as a senior executive and advisor. In this role, he is part of a team expanding an ongoing operational transformation to make current products and services more affordable and accessible to incarcerated people and their families, and develop new offerings to create better outcomes for the incarcerated, their communities, and society. Throughout his life, Mr. Jackson has worked alongside his family to support their social justice, civil rights, and community service efforts. He is highly active with Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), sits on the board for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and is a Founding Member and Director of the Jackson Legacy Foundation (JLF). Mr. Jackson is a driving force behind the Foundation’s current initiative to document and archive the work of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, and its core priorities to support education, equality, and leadership. When the country was forced to shutdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Mr. Jackson led the Foundation’s work to provide access to COVID-19 testing for the most vulnerable populations and serve over meals in partnership with Jose Andres World Central Kitchen and others throughout Chicago.