Duffy Jennings
Vice President, Communications
Duffy Jennings has compiled a distinguished career as a nationally recognized corporate communications executive, public relations consultant and journalist. Over the past three decades he has increased awareness, growth and revenue for companies and clients in public policy, technology, e-commerce, consumer goods and services, sports, travel and entertainment.
Prior to joining Joint Venture in February 2008, Jennings was vice president of strategic communications with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business trade association representing 250 companies. He previously held senior executive roles with The Enterprise Network of Silicon Valley, e-commerce startup Fogdog.com and the San Francisco Giants. He was also a prize-winning reporter, editor and City Hall bureau chief for the San Francisco Chronicle and has experience as a freelance writer and editor, public speaker and journalism instructor.
As the hands-on founder and principal of his own Silicon Valley consulting firm, Duffy has worked with dozens of clients since 1993, including: RealNetworks, 3Com, Hewlett Packard, The Tech Museum of Innovation, VendorRate, PowerReviews, GolfWeb and Electronics for Imaging. As VP of corporate communications for online sporting goods retailer Fogdog from 1998-2001, his leadership helped the unknown startup become a $70 million public company in just two years, producing feature coverage by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, Business Week and Sports Illustrated and on numerous national and local broadcasts.
Duffy supervised public relations for the San Francisco Giants during the 1980s, a decade when they hosted an All-Star Game, won a National League pennant and endured the ten-day postponement of the 1989 World Series at Candlestick Park caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17. He created the Giants Community Fund, the Giants Alumni Association and Giants Magazine, and won the Major League Baseball Marketing Excellence Award for the team’s Silver Anniversary activities in 1982.
In more than a dozen years with the Chronicle, Duffy covered such major stories as the City Hall assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the Dan White murder trial and riot, the Zodiac serial killer, the Zebra murders and the Patty Hearst kidnap. His character was featured in the 2007 motion picture, “Zodiac.”
Duffy’s writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, San Francisco Magazine, San Jose Magazine, Great Crimes of San Francisco and other publications. He is active in a variety of business and professional organizations. A native San Franciscan, Jennings majored in journalism at San Francisco State University. He resides in Los Gatos, CA.