James Michael Stracka
James Michael Stracka, (born March 25, 1959) commonly known as Jim Stracka, is an American entrepreneur and innovator. Stracka has founded multiple successful companies including PentaSafe, StrackaLine, Golf Rank, and KeyCompete amongst others.
Early life and education
Stracka was born on 25th March 1959 to Steve and Leona Stracka. Stracka started working at an early age, delivering newspapers at the age of ten. During his teens, he worked at a bowling alley. He started working at the William Penn Inn in Gwynedd, PA when he was in high school and college to pay for his tuition fees and expenses, doing whatever he was required including working as a waiter and bartending.
Career
After Stracka obtained his BS degree in Computer Science at Slippery Rock University in PA, he took a job with Gulf Oil in Houston, Texas creating software to help Gulf Oil find oil using well log data. He left his job at Gulf Oil to work for a world-renowned law firm, Fulbright and Jaworski. He was brought on board for his database skills to help refine their conflicts application.
After a few years at Fulbright, Stracka eventually started working for himself and started developing security and auditing applications. Exxon and Ernst & Young were amongst his first few clients, with Ernst and Young deploying the software Stracka developed to their offices worldwide to assist them in performing audits on their clients.
Stracka used the experience he gained to create PentaSafe software in 1997 with Keith Kreuer, Stephen Skinner, and Mike Clark. PentaSafe grew to over 300 people and generated over $40 million in revenue when it was purchased by NetIQ in 2002. His next venture was a company called Fast400. Stracka employed world-renowned scientist Leif Svalgaard. developed technology to remove the governors from IBM’s AS/400 computers. IBM eventually bought the Fast400 technology after a lawsuit and a lot of negotiating.
In 2003, after relocating to San Diego, California, Stracka started seeking a new challenge and founded StrackaLine to help golfers read the greens better. He built the company with his son, Chase Stracka. He currently serves as the President of StrackaLine, Golf Intelligence, and GolfRank. Before his involvement in the golf industry, Stracka held positions as a Board Member at Paymetric, CEO of W5 Technologies, President of Fast400, KeyCompete, and President of PentaSafe.
Personal Life
Stracka relocated to San Diego, California in 2003. He still resides in the San Diego area with his wife, Ronda, two children, Chase and Carlie, and six grandchildren.
