David Viotti

Chief Executive Officer

Dave Viotti has been a proud member of the JSA community for more than 20 years. He discovered JSA as a sophomore at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., where his high school English teacher encouraged him to attend the JSA Summer School at Georgetown University.

It was the most influential and positive educational experience of his youth. He returned for a second summer as a student and three more as a graduate student counselor. In later years, Dave served the foundation as an alumni volunteer and member of the board of trustees (most recently as vice president of the board).

Viotti’s early experiences in JSA made a positive difference in his life and had a formative impact on his education and professional career. He has a passion for the foundation’s core mission of empowering young people to participate in our democracy. Dave joined the foundation’s management team as chief executive to give back to an organization that has given so much to him.

Career highlights include Viotti’s previous role as chief learning officer (USA) for Sun Microsystems Inc., where he was responsible for the training and development needs of Sun’s customers, employees and partners. Before this job, Viotti served in various senior management positions covering strategic planning, business development and acquisitions for Sun.

Viotti also worked for many years as a corporate attorney representing public and private companies in business and litigation matters. He has extensive knowledge of domestic and international politics and law as both student and practitioner. He served as Henry Luce Scholar to the Legislative Council in Hong Kong where he helped draft legislation promoting human rights and democracy for Hong Kong citizens.

He also worked with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Judicial Independence in Malaysia to monitor and promote the freedom of judges from political influence on a global basis and was assistant producer for CNN’s legal affairs program, “Burden of Proof.”

In addition to his JSA background, Viotti has extensive education experience working with students. As assistant dean at Oxford University (Brasenose College) and resident director at Georgetown University, he was responsible for the day-to-day counseling, academic support and event programming for undergraduate students.

Viotti holds a bachelor’s in government and a J.D. from Georgetown University and a master’s in international relations from Oxford University as an Allbritton Scholar. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife, Brooke, and their two young children (both aspiring JSA students).