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10<br />
Lou Jacobs<br />
Principal<br />
Lou Jacobs is a principal of <strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong><br />
Companies and a member of the company’s<br />
senior management team.<br />
“My focus is on looking at acquisitions, key<br />
investment opportunities and hopefully<br />
representing the family as a responsible and good<br />
owner,” says Jacobs. “In a nutshell, I spend my<br />
time looking at the big picture.”<br />
Only 4 years old when his grandfather – company<br />
founder Louis M. Jacobs – passed away, Jacobs’<br />
earliest memories of <strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong> are of<br />
tagging along with his father, Jeremy Jacobs Sr.,<br />
to the office on Saturdays.<br />
“My brothers, Jerry and Charlie, and I would<br />
latch on to the vending machine folks and help<br />
them refill the machines or do other little odd<br />
jobs around the building. How helpful we actually<br />
were is anybody’s guess.”<br />
Jacobs’ first summer job with the company was<br />
staffing the pari-mutuel window at the Buffalo<br />
Raceway when he was in high school.<br />
“I’ll never forget my first night,” he says. “My<br />
boss reminded me straight off that I was there to<br />
learn the business, not have fun. He was a pretty<br />
intimidating guy. Anyway, I stood behind this<br />
machine, figuring out as fast as I could what the<br />
various gaming terms meant as old hands placed<br />
rapid-fire bets. I was nervous, because if you<br />
made a mistake, you owned the ticket. I could<br />
have lost a week’s wages if I blew it. It was such an<br />
adrenaline rush! I loved that job. The summer<br />
flew by.”<br />
After being graduated by Harvard in 1986,<br />
Jacobs joined the company’s gaming division.<br />
He was named vice president two years later and<br />
given responsibility for expanding <strong>Delaware</strong><br />
<strong>North</strong>’s pari-mutuel operations. After taking a<br />
break to earn his MBA from Harvard’s business<br />
school, Jacobs returned to the family business<br />
and relocated to Sydney, Australia, in 1993 to<br />
become chairman of <strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong> (Australia)<br />
Pty Ltd, a division of the company’s international<br />
operations. The following year, he was appointed<br />
president of <strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong> Companies<br />
International. He returned to the company’s<br />
global headquarters in Buffalo in 1995, at which<br />
time he was appointed executive vice president.
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