John Rudolf Bio
John is Founder and Chairman of Seattle-based
Summit Capital Group and portfolio manager of two of the firm's private investment partnerships: Summit Special Situations Fund and Summit World Fund.
He was educated at Gonzaga Prep High School in his birthplace Spokane, the University of Notre Dame and Columbia University Graduate School. He began his investment career in New York City, eventually returning to Seattle as Oppenheimer & Co., Inc's Northwest region partner, and then founding Summit Capital in 1996 as an independent investment advisory firm.
John’s non-business and volunteer interests are as diverse as his athletic activities. Among them, over the years he has served as the co-chair of the Million Dollar Roundtable of the
United Way of King County; board member of
Andean Health and Development; advisor to the Applied Investment Management Program at the University of Notre Dame Business School; advisory board member and past chair of Notre Dame's Snite Museum of Art; trustee of the
Pacific Northwest Ballet; Chairman and Founder of the College Baseball Classic Foundation; advisor to Gonzaga University's Center For Global Engagement and Zags In Zambia Africa Program; member of the University of Washington Medical Center's Institute For Prostate Cancer Research; and when his kids were young, for many years a youth baseball, basketball and soccer coach.
He loves just about any sports activity - especially outdoors - and pursues them when he can with his four kids and three grandkids. Besides mountain climbing, other favorites include cycling, tennis, running, triathlons, skiing, golf, kayaking, in-line and ice skating, and paddleboarding in Maui and on Hayden Lake.
John has climbed 7 of the '8' "7 Summits": Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, Denali, Mt. Vinson, Kosciuszko and Carstensz Pyramid [Australia and Oceania battling it out for the 7th continent position]. Other summits include: Cotopaxi and other Ecuadorian mountains; the Matterhorn; Mont Blanc [three unsuccessful attempts!]; lots of hikes and climbing throughout the Alps and the Pacific Northwest [Mount Rainier, Adams, St. Helens; etc]; the Grand Canyon's 'Rim To Rim To Rim';the first recorded solo winter ascent of Idaho's famed Mount Canfield; Greenland Expedition with my son John; and multiple climbs from sea level of 10,000 foot Haleakala—my favorite one day hike !
(John pictured with University of Notre Dame President Emeritus Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C.. Father Ted is Chairman of
Andean Health and Development, whose Board John is on. John is dedicating his Everest climb to raisign funds for a new research and teaching hospital in Ecuador for AHD, and father Ted has given hin his personal business card to try and carry to the summit in honor of Andean Health's work and mission.