20 under 40: JAMES BATES

Favorite quote or saying, why?

“I don’t want to be a public success and a private failure.” – Glen Berteau

This quote speaks to what really is important in life. If we achieve awards and monetary success, but fail our family, friends, and community we ultimately have failed at what’s most important.

Community or professional highlights:

During my senior year of high school, in 1997, I was recruited by a 500+ employee company the Bay Area to run and completely overhaul their IT department. As my career progressed, several business owners in the valley asked if I could help them with their technology. In 2000, I started JB Networks as my first company and in 2005 I partnered with a childhood friend, David Darmstandler, to form our current company, Datapath. Datapath just celebrated its 12-year anniversary. We have made the Inc. 5000 list for fastest growing, private, U.S. based companies for six consecutive years. Datapath continues to innovate in the areas of technology, and is also seen as an innovator in the creative ways we give back to the community. The accomplishments we have achieved at Datapath couldn’t have been possible without the amazing team of people I’m blessed to work with each day.

On the community side I have been blessed to be serve in numerous projects, committees, and boards. One of my absolute highlights has been being a founding board member of CodeX. CodeX gives low-income students from Stanislaus County exposure to college, technology careers, and teaches the hard skill of software development. The first year’s CodeX students won the Congressional App Challenge and an award at the Valley Hackathon. CodeX is now part of the Harvard Venture Incubation Program and has expanded to 5 schools in our county.

Being part of the James Irvine New Leadership Network (NLN) for networking, leadership growth, and social change in our community has also been extremely rewarding and has broadened my perspective of the specific needs in our community. The NLN has brought together a tremendous group of leaders committed to making a significant difference in our community. This has given me the opportunity to be a part of the progressive movement with other bright minds to make Modesto/Stanislaus County a thriving area with a bright future.

Your life changed when:

I have been blessed with having many different experiences that taught me valuable lessons. I was born into an amazing family with some of the best parents anyone could ever ask to have. When I was 7, my dad let me accompany him to a business meeting where I met many inspiring individuals. As I learned about the different businesses they owned and how they could positively affect so many people through the resources their business provided, I knew I wanted to go into business.

At Davis High School, here in Modesto, I had the opportunity to have hands on experience with computer networking by my teacher Mr. Doll, which set my career path into motion.

However, nothing compares to the birth of my son, Colin. I never fully understood what selfless love really was until he was born. He is now 8 and he is my best friend in the whole world. No matter what title or position I have in life, nothing can top the title of being dad to him. He inspires me to be the best, most authentic me – as I am a better human being, because of him.

What do you want people to know most about you?

I want to be known simply as James Bates, the person, not any title or accomplishment. I wouldn’t be where I am without God, my amazing family, incredible friends, and mentors in my life.

It means a lot to me to be able to give back to the community that has supported me. I enjoy traveling and seeing other parts of the world. Travel gives me a broader perspective and appreciation of the beauty of the diversity in our world.

In my down time, I love to fish which is just as much about spending quality, uninterrupted time with people important to me as it is catching a giant fish!

What do you like most about living here?

Although I have been able to travel the world, I can honestly say I’ve never seen a more supportive community. I was blown away by the people that mentored me, encouraged me, and truly wanted to see Datapath succeed when we first started.

I am equally impressed by how much people care about those who live here and the tremendous heart for improving the lives of others in our community. I’m excited to see a stirring of discontent of accepting the negative labels that have been put on our area. I see the amazing group of talent in our community that is poised to put us at the top of the best list and off the worst list.

We are in an amazing area of California, right in the middle of some of the best places in the world to visit, while we get to return to our amazing hometown.

Why is community involvement important?

Community involvement is important to me because it is life giving, both to me and those around me. I have met and become friends with some of the most important people in my life simply by being involved in our community. It gives a sense of purpose to know we are serving alongside our fellow citizens to make our community better. It is our responsibility to be involved, not just criticize, complain, and wish our community was a better place. For long term, sustainable improvement in any community its citizens must be vested in the change, not wait for someone else to fix what we think is broken.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 12:34 PM with the headline "20 under 40: JAMES BATES."