DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT
Jay Monroe III
Honored in
James (Jay) Monroe III is a graduate of the class of 1973 and attended college at Tulane University.
Jay exemplifies the spirit of the American entrepreneur. In 1984 he and his wife used $40,000—the proceeds of the sale of their New Orleans home—to start Thermo Companies, a business selling electricity to utility companies. Jay later raised millions in debt and equity to finance the construction of Thermo’s first power plant in Colorado. After building four power plants, Thermo began investing in natural gas exploration projects. Jay and his partners operated these businesses for 20 years and used the profits to build sizable companies in commercial and resort real estate, financial services and aircraft leasing, industrial distribution and telecommunications.
Currently, Jay’s largest telecommunications business interest is in the satellite industry, where Thermo holds a majority interest in Globalstar. Globalstar is a publicly traded provider of satellite phones and communications infrastructure to the 3 billion people in world without cellular or landline access. Jay is currently Globalstar’s Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Jay and his wife split their time between Denver and New Orleans.