Jason Roberts Bio
Family Background:
Born August 5, 1975 in Bryan TX to Mary and George Roberts
Two brothers Michael (8 yrs older) and John (1 year younger)
Dad (George) was a college professor at Prairie View A&M University HBCU for many years
Mom (Mary) was a high school teacher
George was the first black to receive a PhD in Mathematics from the Texas A&M University
George was a twin (brother Roy) and one of 11 children. He was born and raised in East Texas (Carthage) very poor but his parents (Baker and Thelma) stressed education for all of their children.
Mary was one of 4 girls (also from Carthage). She met George in college (Wiley – Marshall TX – HBCU)
George was a math genius but committed suicide at the age of 65.
Mary retired shortly after his death and after 40+ years of teaching.
She still lives in Hempstead TX.
Currently married (to Tiesha aka Tie) with three children: Jalen (22 – Sr. SDSU), Karis (18 – Fresh Penn State), and Kaden (13 – middle school)
Childhood and Young Adult:
I grew up in Carthage (rural east Texas) prior to moving to a small town outside of Houston (Hempstead) shortly after my dad started teaching at Prairie View – 5th grade.
I have fond memories of growing up with 30+ first cousins, working and fishing with my favorite uncle during the summers, helping my dad who also raised cattle.
Work ethic was a key part of how I was raised. All of my role models (mom, dad, uncles, aunts, etc.) were always working, all the time!
After moving in the 5th grade I went to school in a small town next to Prairie View (Waller). Graduated from there and then went on to college at the University of Texas at Austin.
Majored in Mechanical Engineering, but realized later that I didn’t want to be an engineer, so I got a minor in business.
Was very active on campus (president and step master of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, active with Dean of Students Office, etc.)
Met my wife (Tiesha aka Tie) in college.
Had our first child shortly after graduating and getting married in 1999 (son – Jalen)
Early Career:
First job out of college was as a Production Facilitator with Johnson and Johnson (Ethicon) in West Texas ( San Angelo). Jalen was actually born there.
Worked the 2nd shift in a production plant where they manufactured sutures, bone mesh and other medical products. Lead a team of employees that pieced together the sutures.
Loved it there, but moved to Houston after one year to be closer to family and after a difficult pregnancy.
Took a job in Houston with then Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Started as a Tibco Developer (programming) before eventually moving into more business consulting in addition to systems integration consulting.
Enjoyed the fast pace consulting environment and the learning, achieving early promotions to both Consultant and Manager levels.
However, the fast pace took a toll on my personal life. Especially after our daughter was born, so I stopped traveling and took a local project in Houston.
Shortly after that, my dad committed suicide (February 13, 2006). To this day, I feel that if it was more acceptable to discuss and be open with how you feel (especially as a black man and our challenges) that my dad would be here today.
His death affected me more than I realized which I would come to understand later. It was also the catalyst for change in my early career. Shortly after, I decided to leave consulting and move into an industry – to allow me to go back to school and get my MBA.
It was there that I met one of my lifelong mentors (Darily Jones). She was one of very few Black women executives in oil and gas in Houston at the time. Encouraged me to follow through on my plans to get my MBA and even supported me at work. Even went out of her way to get the company to cover more of the costs for my MBA (at Rice University). She has helped me tremendously over the years and we still stay in touch to this day.
Mid Career:
After getting my MBA an opportunity presented itself to use this new found knowledge with a larger company. So I made the transition to the waste industry (i.e., trash and recycling) in 2011. Becoming a Director of Innovation and Business Optimization at Waste Management.
The guy that hired me is another one of my lifelong mentors and someone who has helped me grow – Dave Murphy (aka Murph). He specifically hired me into his small – but high profile – innovation group because he wanted someone who did not grow up in the industry and was not white.
Get that, a white dude who understood the power of diversity, and actually sought it out.
Murph was a huge part of my growth and development at WM. He made sure I had opportunities to interact with the C-Suite, and eventually honored his promise to me to get me P&L responsibility.
My first P&L responsibility was running a small retail product business called Bagster (~ $50 Million business). Loved having the opportunity to run a business and make strategic decisions that impacted the top line. Not just run a department that was a cost center – which in my experience (at the time), was where you would find the black folk in leadership. Not in operations or sales, but in support functions.
After my success with Bagster and an internal leadership development program, I was promoted to General Manager and asked to move to California to learn frontline operations in depth (2016).
Before I left for California from Houston, I remember Murph telling me that “If I didn’t figure out what made me tick, I would kill myself”. I didn’t understand then the power of his words, but I would later.
This move is truly what provided me the opportunity to see frontline operations upfront and personal. It’s also from this experience that I got the idea to start my own company. More on that later.
After moving to CA and running a large collections operations (i.e., 100+ drivers and staff that pick up your trash, recycling, and green waste) I quickly realized that the men and women doing the lion’s share of the work were not treated as the valued assets that they were.
And this didn’t sit easy with me. I struggled internally with whether I could continue to climb in a company knowing what I now knew. I felt like my values didn’t align with the trajectory I was on, and on top of that, I was set up to fail. But I also felt so much pressure to keep climbing that corporate ladder, since I was the ONLY black executive in operations at the time. That, along with the stress of transitioning to operations with very little support, took a real toll on me.
In fact, at the age of 42 (Oct 7 2017), I had a stroke while at Big Bear vacationing with my family and friends. I was airlifted to Loma Linda hospital where I spent several days in the hospital. Luckily I had no long-term damage, but I remember sitting in the hospital thinking that I needed to make a change or I would die. Murph’s words to me before I left Houston all of a sudden became crystal clear.
Shortly after my stroke, I decided to see a therapist for the first time. This was probably the best decision of my career, and potentially life saving. She helped me understand “what made me tick” and how my childhood played a huge role in what was happening in the current day. She helped me better manage the stress and tension of life. To this day, I credit her not only with saving my life, but with making me a better, more self-aware, compassionate person.
Current Profession (Story Behind Frontline Careers):
A few months after my stroke, I was at a golf tournament in Scottsdale AZ (Waste Management Open). There I had the opportunity to hear Mike Rowe (the TV celebrity) speak. He virtually called out business leaders in the room for devaluing the skill trades and putting too much emphasis on college degrees.
His words resonated with my experience on the frontlines. It was at that moment that I had the idea to start what would later become Frontline Careers. The idea: help frontline workers find companies that did understand their value and worth.
After having the idea, I first called my wife and then a long-time friend (Ari) with whom I had countless conversations lamenting my displeasure with the work environment and how folks were treated. His background as a PhD IO Psychologist was perfect for what I envisioned.
They both loved the idea, and after a year and half getting my affairs in order, I made the decision to leave Waste Management, and co-found Frontline Careers with Ari (Jan 2020).
Tie helped us as an outside consultant initially (via her non-profit consulting company) but we later brought her on as a co-founder given her direct and tireless involvement from the early stages of the company. Tie currently serves as Chief Digital Officer (she’s got mad marketing skills), Ari as our Chief Operating Officer (he’s one hell of a scientist), and myself as CEO.
Shortly after we founded the company, the world stopped moving due to COVID, but we did not. We used the time to launch our website, conduct market research, and eventually build and launch beta versions of our job site and proprietary frontline workplace assessment.
Today, we have a growing social impact startup focused on connecting frontline workers looking for more with companies that offer more. We use our proprietary Frontline FriendlySM assessment to get anonymous feedback from frontline employees (only) in an effort to determine if a business or company truly does care and invest in their frontline staff. Those that are, earn our official Frontline FriendlySM company certification which is good for one year.
In addition to our certification, we also offer a job site that only features frontline jobs offering more than just pay.
We recently certified the first-ever Frontline FriendlySM company (Little Cakes Kitchen in Vista CA) and are in the process of beginning more assessments in San Diego.
For years I have thought of writing a book titled “Corporate America is not for Me”. Speaking to the corp america experience as a black man. However, the point of the book is that Corp America actually is for us (hence the “not” is struck through), because it provides the perfect opportunity to learn on someone else’s dime and build the skills necessary to gain the freedom you need and desire.
At least that has been my experience. My time working as a supervisor in a plant, learning to code as an analyst, planning and leading large projects as a consulting manager, overseeing a p&l with a large marketing budget, and even running frontline operations consisting of hundreds of hard-working men and women,has all better prepared me to lead my own company.
And most importantly, my personal mental health journey has also equipped me with the tools necessary to handle the inevitable pitfalls and setbacks you suffer as a startup founder.
Personal
- Email: jason@frontlinecareers.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/jason.roberts.14473426
- Instagram: jjroberts06
- Clubhouse: @jasonjroberts
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jason-jerome-roberts
Frontline Careers
- Website: frontlinecareers.com
- Email: info@frontlinecareers.com
- Twitter: @FrntlineCareers
- Facebook: facebook.com/frontlinefriendly
- Instagram: frontlinecareers
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/frontline-careers