Jeff Wilcox, founder and owner (together with his wife Jonmarie Maloney) of Glass Concepts, spent his formative years as a son in a military family. At the earliest opportunity, he skipped out of high school, took his equivalency exam to get his diploma, and joined the US Army. In the 82nd Airborne he began training to become a paratrooper, but after about 15 jumps, including four at night, he decided that dangling under a parachute wasn't for him.
Switching to air assault (rapelling out of helicopters suited him better than parachuting out of airplanes), he chose combat engineering as his specialty, which meant learning everything there is to know about building pontoon bridges, camouflaging field equipment, removing obstructions in the middle of battle, and--his favorite--blowing up anything and everything with explosives as part of a demolition crew. Without giving too many details, Jeff will admit that he enjoyed demolition so much that we're lucky to have him with us today!
As a military engineer, Jeff loved the creative problem solving (especially the engineering drawing portion of his job) and the follow-through required on a daily basis. Although he never saw combat during his four-year stint, he trained constantly with his company, always facing new and different challenges and objectives. During his military service Jeff developed a can-do attitude coupled with perseverance, teamwork, attention to detail, and excellent engineering, drafting and management skills.
After the Army, Jeff put his abilities to use as an construction engineer at George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in Marin County, CA. At ILM Jeff worked on the sets of nine movies, including 'Willow' (dir: Ron Howard) and 'Tucker' (dir: Francis Ford Coppola). A fall on the job, however, injured his back so badly that he could no longer climb on scaffolding the way he needed to. He decided to find a career that did not require so much physical activity but which still would use his engineering skills, and that's when the idea came to him: Windows!
Beginning in 1988 Jeff workedthree years for a windows dealer, then four years as a manufacturer's sales rep calling on architects, and then three additional years in sales for a manufacturerer of wood windows. By 1998 Jeff decided that working for others was not for him, so with $500 start-up capital and using his bedroom for an office, he began Glass Concepts. His wife Jonmarie has kept the books for him since the beginning, and she joined him full-time at the end of 2001.
Together Jeff and Jonmarie have grown Glass Concepts into the largest and best high-end wood window dealership in the Bay Area.