Biography

Jack Lafortune began his professional career as an expert programmer. Mr. Lafortune received an accelerated Bachelor's in Computer Science from the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada. He began his career at Pratt & Whitney, Canada in 2001, his greatest achievement was having single-handedly completed a complex lay-off Expert System that identified procedures needed in case of an economic downturn. Results that would have previously taken weeks to obtain could be obtained in 2 hours. The system included over 10,000 lines of code from 30 databases and received data feeds from multiple databases. All of this achieved when he was 22 years old. He found that he had hit a plateau and his career path there was limited partially due to his relatively young age, in the Pratt & Whitney organization. He then went on to build his own startup, JED (Joint Enterprise Development) Labs which allowed him to follow his interests outside of Information Technology and towards a more flexible career in the creative area he loved. JED Labs' expert 20-member team can produces virtually all types of multi-media and includes clients in the film industry. Services available include artificial intelligence, video production, virtual reality, photography and branding. JED can start from a concept, move to storyboards and produce a finished video/film. Jack is looking to expand JED Labs to other Canadian cities and set up an office in the U.S. He wants to establish JED Labs as a leader in at least one of its specialties. He also wants to be more involved in his startups in the avenues of meditation, real estate and the beverage industry. He attributes his success to his creativity, elevated negotiating skills, his fearlessness in the face of big projects as well as his ability to understand business thoroughly and visually reproduce virtually any concept. Having survived the Haitian earthquake Jack was brought to a turning point that strongly contributed to his venture out on his own. In addition to his other interests, he does volunteer work benefiting schizophrenics. He is also looking to offer skills-based volunteering in pro bono consulting. In joining the Worldwide Association of Notable Alumni Jack hopes to connect with forward thinking professionals and to build a strong network.