Voyager Group’s Jim Dolan
Interview by R. Randall Padfield - April 1, 2008
James Dolan made news in the Pittsburgh business press in 1996 when he left a successful position as president and CEO of Federated Services Co., a subsidiary of Federated Investors, after 20 years with the well-established investment manager. To outsiders, it appeared to be a dream job. More puzzling, Dolan said he really didn’t know what he wanted to do next, except that he wasn’t ready to retire.
Just a year later, however, he established Access Data Corporation. “Today, about $4 trillion-worth of assets go through Access Data daily,” he told me during our interview in a Signature Flight Support conference room in Morristown, N.J. “We’re probably one of the largest deliverers of software services to the financial industry.”
Dolan had flown in the day before–for meetings in New York–on his Hawker 900XPi, the first example of this model delivered to a customer. Right after our interview, he flew back to Pittsburgh in time for dinner–and his first grandchild’s first birthday that weekend.
Access Data is now part of the Voyager Group, a private equity holding company that is wholly owned by the Dolan family. Among its 16 companies and investments are two FBOs–Voyager Jet Center at Allegheny Airport near Pittsburgh and Yellowstone Jetcenter in Bozeman, Mont.–real estate company Rivers to Peaks and Voyager Construction, both in Montana.
But it’s The Club at Spanish Peaks in Montana, Dolan’s latest project and passion, that takes up most of his time. “Nothing inspires me more than getting up in the morning and seeing the majesty of Montana,” he said. “And nothing is more draining than sitting 14 hours in a conference room in Pennsylvania talking about it. It will be at least 10 more years of work.”
Jim, you have several operations in western Pennsylvania and Montana. What’s the connection?
Pittsburgh remains my home and it’s where I go to work. I keep my heart and soul in Montana.
How did you get this relationship with Montana?
Patty and I have six sons. Every year, we took a ski vacation to a different place. The boys always said, “That was fun. Let’s go back there next year.” And I always said, “No. They’ve all been fun. Let’s keep looking.” Then we went to Montana in 1995 and simply fell in love with it. We built a home out there and acquired several pieces of property. One of the results is The Club at Spanish Peaks.
Where did this idea come from?
We wanted to do something that was family-centric and a legacy for our family. We wanted to create a community that we feel represents what is most important to us about Montana. It is also consistent with what I like to do, which is to create–to set the stage and put the people together. On the business side, this involves lots of parts to make it happen. The CEO’s role is to do all this.
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