The Kimsey Report Art, sports, and Internet aficionados owe former bartender Jim Kimsey a drink
Washington, D.C.’s booming technology corridor is beginning to rival both California’s Silicon Valley and New York City’s Silicon Alley – and no one deserves more credit for that than Jim Kimsey. This heavy hitter founded America Online, hired and nurtured Steve Case (CEO of Northern Virginia – based AOL), and is called by some the “Father of the American Internet.”
Most recently, he’s trained his sights on philanthropic efforts and the betterment of Washington, his hometown.
The Shuttle Sheet caught up with him at his Pennsylvania Avenue office.
Shuttle Sheet: You could live anywhere. Why the Washington area?
Jim Kimsey: Steve Case wanted me to move to California for the labor pool and the infastructure. But he kept forgetting one thing: This is my hometown. This is where I want to live. There are human-scale features and physical amenities that matter to me.
SS: How is it that you seem to know everyone in the area?
JK: I used to own a chain of bars – Bullfeathers, the Exchange, Madhatter and Cousteaus – so everyone knows me.
SS: As someone who once owned bars, where’s your favorite barstool today?
JK: I haven’t been in a bar in a while, but 20 of us from my bar days have a monthly “boys” lunch at The Prime Rib, The Palm, or Dominique’s. It keeps us all in touch. And I still go to the Exchange.
SS: What’s your favorite way to spend an evening?
JK: A quiet night at home. But that’s so rare. I go to a lot of sporting events, and the Kennedy Center for theater, opera and symphony.
SS: As chairman emeritus and founder of AOL, how do you spend your time?
JK: I focus on national and international matters, but I incubate them in D.C. I try to find solutions to bridging the digital divide. Through the AOL Foundation, we have just released $1.1 million in grants to cultivate 12 Internet programs in eight cities, including Washington.
SS: We know you’re devoted to your three sons and young granddaughter, and you do a lot for other kids too. Tell us about that.
JK: I wish I had a mentor when I was young. Now I’m on the board of Big Brothers. And I have an orphanage in Vietnam; it’s the only American-initiated project that still exists. And I want to bring {major league} baseball {back} to Washington and have the profits go to inner-city kids.
SS: What’s the status of your efforts as a principal in the Washington Baseball Club Limited Liability Company, formed to bring baseball to D.C.?
JK: Major league baseball knows we’re here: {real estate investor} Joe Robert, {Fannie Mae Chairman and CEO} Frank Raines and Fred Malek {an investor and the former president of Marriot Hotels}. We hope to buy and existing team and move it to D.C. The “haves” have to subsidize the “havenots.” I’ll write a big check. We don’t care which team because we think Washington deserves a team and will support it. We’d insure we’d have a winning team, and you won’t have to drive 40 miles to Baltimore {to watch the Orioles}.
SS: If you buy a team, what will you name it?
JK: Speculation about the name is premature, but there’s a sentiment to rename it the Senators.
SS: Do you anticipate building a new stadium in Washington?
JK: We’ll build a new stadium in the city, maybe near Mount Vernon Square with the Capitol in the background. Just as the MCI Center has done, this would continue to accelerate downtown development and rejuvenate the city.
SS: As a board member of the National Symphony Orchestra and a Kennedy Center trustee, you’ve had a role in encouraging the artistic community in Washington to coordinate its efforts. What other changes have you noticed in that facet of the city since you grew up here?
JK: It was a cultural backwater. Now we have world-class opera and stage productions. We got Leonard Slatkin and Placido Domingo. They’re the Michael Jordans of the cultural world. And that’s how it should be in our nation’s capital.
SS: You’ve recently given and unprecedented $10 million to endow the Kennedy Center. What do you feel is your biggest contribution to this city?
JK: Hopefully, I’m still working on it. The city has done so much for me. My gift to the Kennedy Center will be to give every fifth-grade student in D.C. the opportunity to attend a performance there. The well-being of the Washington community and the performing arts in the nation’s capital are very important to me personally. I look forward to seeing the support for our city grow. Gifts to the endowment will enable the Kennedy Center and the NSO to contribute to attract outstanding artists and musicians.