Jonathan C. Coon

Jonathan C. Coon is the retired CEO of 1-800-Contacts, which he founded in his Brigham Young University dorm in 1992 with $50. He sold contacts to other students and in 1995, his business model helped him win the 1995 Business Plan Competition hosted by the Marriott School of Management. The award gave him capital for his business, which he originally called 1-800-LENS-NOW. He earned his bachelor’s deree in advertising and public relations. He won the 2000 Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He serves on the Marriott School National Advisory Council.

Coon has been an entrepreneur since he was eight years old. He was influential in passing the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act in 2004, which allows Americans to have the right to obtain their contact lens prescriptions.

He and his younger brother Jeremy Coon provided all of the funding for the movie Napolean Dynamite written by Jerusha and Jared Hess.

Coon and his wife, Kirsten, have three children.