Staff Bio - Jackson Solway

SOCA is pleased to report that Mr. Jackson Solway has joined its team as the Director of Operations. A Seattle native, Mr. Solway lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade where he worked in the tech industry building and managing businesses while serving as a consultant to help others–including Google, DoorDash, and Apple–grow their own and hire the right people for their vision. While in California, he had met and married a woman from Athens, and in 2020 they considered it time to move back and set down roots in this community. It is now also home to his two young boys, one of whom will be joining his dad at SOCA this year.

If education is about the formation and growth of a human person—and at SOCA we believe that it is—then Mr. Solway’s experience in the tech industry has furnished him with a unique and valuable perspective. The beginning of his career lay in photojournalism and longer-form writing, and he is glad to be returning from machines and prices to ideas and values. Having deliberately left the world of Silicon Valley, Jackson has become an enthusiastic proponent of Classical Education’s pursuit of what is enduring and real. In an age of distracted amusement and powerful technocratic forces, he is looking forward to helping kids become lovers and builders of what is true, good, and beautiful. 

Mr. Solway has spent years sifting through fine print and managing the complexities and vicissitudes of large corporations. Even in the last few months, Mr. Solway’s skill and experienced determination have proved a valuable asset to SOCA as it prepares to launch this fall. As a school, we may differ widely from the companies he has built and served, but many of the needs and complexities are similar, and it is a tremendous help to have him running things behind the scenes.

Many of the stories that will be told to the students at SOCA depend on ships. Navies, explorers, and merchants all figure prominently in history and literature. But while men like Odysseus, Christopher Columbus, and Ernest Shackleton may be well known, the fame of their individual virtues and skills would not have endured without good ships. Each of these men, and many more like them, knew keenly how dependent they were on the dozens who kept their hulls tight, their sails intact, and all supplies in order. Similarly, everything that the Principal, Deans, and Teachers are able to do at SOCA is made possible by the often invisible operations which Mr. Solway diligently executes and directs.