Presenting a success

CORONA DEL MAR — Corona del Mar High School alumnus Jed Weinstein loves sports and people.

He played tennis, soccer and ran cross-country before he graduated in 1994. He threw great shindigs with his friends.

His love of sports, people and special events carried on through college, and now Weinstein has upped the ante, creating special events on a much larger scale in New York.

On April 26, Weinstein will host Wall Street traders, celebrities, boxing fans and poker players at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan for his third annual social boxing event, called Box NYC.

The 30-year-old bachelor has a special-events production company, appropriately named Jed Weinstein Presents, which he started after years of establishing relationships with big names. In his business, it’s all about trust, and relationships are key.

But it was his time in Corona del Mar that started him on that path. He was social, smart and focused.

John Weyhrauch taught Weinstein calculus at Corona del Mar High School and said he wasn’t surprised to see his former student doing so well.

“He was a good tennis player and had confidence and was doing well — there’s a certain confidence in yourself that also would’ve shown up in the classroom….” said Weyhrauch, who no longer teaches at the school. “I’ve got this image in my mind of him … of him being personable, and obviously that transfers to what’s he’s doing now.”

After graduating from Emory University in Georgia, Weinstein lived in Argentina for almost three years, where he opened his first successful business — a tennis camp.

After a couple of years, he was ready to head back north. He worked for Clear Channel on major accounts, which helped him start his company in 2002.

“It gave me great insight on how a big company runs, and I just tried to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could,” Weinstein said during a recent visit to Corona del Mar. “It was a great opportunity to be in front of a lot of big clients.”

Today he puts on events for charities, fashion designers and works with sports stars such as Maria Sharapova and John McEnroe, who he said are his favorite big names to work with.

His challenge now is to master markets outside New York. He plans to extend the Box NYC event to Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, while planning events for Southern California too.

Weinstein said he misses the honesty and laid-back nature of people he grew up around in Southern California and suggests that kids with entrepreneurial aspirations soak up all that successful people can offer.

“Try to get in front as many people as you can, stay in touch and continue to network,” Weinstein said. “Find someone to serve as a mentor…. You’re young, and you should be asking the stupid questions now and picking the brains of as many people as possible while staying focused.”