Late business icon, ex-Navy aviator, lauded at Legion Post 20 meeting
"Serving in the Navy was the foundation of his life," Jennifer London, widow of J. Phillip "Jack" London, said of her husband at a March 15 meeting of National Press Club American Legion Post 20.
Her husband, who died in 2021, built the 35-person consulting firm CACI into a Fortune 500 company with some 23,000 employees providing vital services to U.S. national defense. The Naval Academy graduate and naval aviator did so stressing principles of ethics and integrity that have become models for the business community.
Jennifer London said her husband was inspired as a youngster to become a naval aviator after watching a performance of the Blue Angels precision flying team. He took a culture of honor and character ingrained during his 12-year Navy career to the business world as explored in the last of his five books, "Ever Vigilant."
He was the executive chairman and chairman of the board of CACI, valued at $5.7 billion, from 2007 until his death at 83.
The executive faced his greatest challenge in 2004 when media reports claimed CACI translators were implicated in the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. London refused to abandon his employees after a company probe concluded they were innocent. He fought against intense pressure and threats of major business loses until multiple federal investigations exonorated CACI employees and concluded military personnel were to blame for the abuses.
Admirers of London who attended the Post 20 meeting included former Navy Commander Everett Alvarez, the longest-held U.S. prisoner of war in Vietnam, and retired Gen. Jack Keane, chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and former acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army. They spoke of London's high ethics, humility and inspirational leadership. He was praised for his strong support for veterans, including hiring a high percentage of former soldiers at CACI.
Post 20 is one of the nation's oldest continually active American Legion posts and was established after World War I at the urging of Gen. John J. Pershing, an associate member of the Club and head of U.S. forces in Europe during World War I.. Its meetings are open to all members of the National Press Club and are carried on Zoom.