David Jacob has done it all-established a flourishing career, married the girl of his dreams, and found balance in work and play-and now he talks about his grand plans for the future.
David Jacob exudes the energy of a man between generations. His age—51 years young this year—suggests he belongs to the Generation X demographic: that of the cynical slackers and disaffected rebels. That he continues to DJ on occasion suggests that same unwillingness to fully “grow up” for which older generations deride Gen Xers.
And yet, as we chat about his career, his path resembles that of a Baby Boomer’s.
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He’s a lifer at Marsh Asia, having spent 28 years working at the insurance brokerage and risk management leader. That level of commitment is a rarity in a generation of individuals whose desire for work-life balance often sees them bouncing between pastures of varying verdancy. For David, however, it was an easy choice to stay with the company for so long.
“I think that if you feel that a company looks after you, and if you feel that the company has given you the opportunities that you have always asked for... I mean, it's a two-way street,” he says. “You don't ask, you don't get. I think everybody has it upon themselves to really take charge of their career. If there are certain opportunities that they want to go for, they should speak up.”
For David, that meant a job that kept opening new beginnings in the form of new homes.
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“I always had this idea that I wanted to be in many countries,” he continues. “I wanted to experience growth through moving—in different positions—and Marsh allowed me to do that, in terms of starting out in an international department that gave me exposure to other countries, different programs. And eventually, gave me the opportunity to move.”
As a stalwart company man, David’s success moved him from New York back home to the Philippines, and then to Hong Kong. All throughout his climb up the ladder, he always managed to keep his first passion—music—a significant part of his life.
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Even before moving to the U.S. to continue his education, he was an avid collector of records, running the gamut of genres from early jazz to '80s New Wave. By the time he attended boarding school in Pennsylvania, he had begun experimenting with DJing.
David shares: “One year, I just sort of said, ‘Why not get into DJing?’ So I just tinkered around on my own, especially when I was in boarding school. I had this old Radio Shack mixer and just started mixing for my friends. Before I knew it, everyone was like, ‘Hey, you know, you play really good music.’ But it wasn't until I got to New York that a couple of friends, who are very serious DJs, said, ‘It's about time you think about learning.’ So I did.”
Those two friends were influential Manila scene DJs Manolet Dario and the late Manolet Santos. With their guidance, David learned the intricacies of mixing and matching beats on vinyl. Eventually, he found himself playing in some of Metro Manila’s biggest stages alongside Dario, and he fell in love with the art form.
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“Any time you get me behind a DJ booth, whether it's for a chilled out party or a massive event, I just get lost in the music,” he says. “It's great to see everybody respond to what you're playing, and the journey that you're able to take people on.”
A transfer to one of Marsh’s offices in Hong Kong led to a DJ residency in a couple of the city’s more popular clubs, where David exhausted himself between work and music. No matter how seriously he took his job in insurance, music was a personal necessity.
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“Maybe it's that Gemini in me, I don't know,” he surmises. “I had to have that balance of ‘I want to work hard, but at the same time, I'm going to have a good time.’”
Between long days at the office and even longer nights at the clubs, David also found the time to fall in love. It was during those hectic days that he finally had the chance to go out with model Amanda Griffin, a friend of his from years back.
“I met Amanda a number of times when I was in Manila, but we both had partners at that time. I always had a crush on her, as probably everybody did,” he says with a laugh. “We'd known each other for quite a while—obviously, not very well—but she was somebody that I always wanted to get to know and be with. As it turns out, luck came my way.”
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“It wasn't until I was in Hong Kong that I was single, and so was she. She gave me a call to say, ‘I'm coming to Hong Kong, are you around?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course!’ It was that night; it was my birthday weekend—I think I was 39 at that time. I invited her to the place I was DJing in. I remember telling all my friends, because we'd arranged a dinner, I said, ‘The girl that's coming tonight is the girl I'm gonna marry.’ And that was it.”
The two got engaged within two months, and were married exactly one year after they started dating. The Jacobs started their family shortly after, and it was around that time David came to understand that his lifestyle needed an adjustment. Having a child, he says, came with a steep learning curve.
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“I just remember sleep deprivation. Just having to have those sleepless nights. I was very much engaged with our first. Sort of waking up when [Amanda] was waking up, changing diapers, everything. And then having to go to work—that was a bit of a shock to the system. But you get used to it.”
Over the years, he had plenty of time to get used to it. Amanda had always wanted a sizeable family—“She was hell-bent on making sure we had four kids,” he says—and in early 2018, they’d achieved that goal, welcoming Kyle into the family with his siblings Kieran, Kalon, and Lila. When asked which of the four was his favorite, David wisely dodged the question with a laugh, and starts talking about how his life has changed since.
“I think my priorities have shifted quite a bit as I got older. I think now, my focus is family, health, and then work. Where before it was always like, ‘Okay, I need to get work up there because I need to take care of my family, and forget about your health.’”
“Now, it’s like, ‘Of course, I've got to take care of my health.’ If I'm not healthy, if something happens to me, then ultimately that affects everything that goes on in the family. I've accomplished a lot with the family, but there’s a lot more that I have to do. There's a lot more that I have to prioritize. Health-wise, I think I'm on the right journey.”
Not only has David cut back on the late nights, he’s also taken on a healthier lifestyle. He’s now an enthusiastic member of the Crossfit community and, following a health scare last year, has transitioned to a pescatarian diet.
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“I had a tumor in my kidney that was removed. It was benign—thank God—but still. It was just that whole—okay, I'm going to cut meat out. I still eat seafood; I'm going to work on that next. It's just too hard to be pure vegetarian. But I'm sort of moving in that direction. Health-wise, I have more energy. I sleep better at night. I'm thinking clearer. So I'm really seeing the benefits.”
As for his music, he’s found several compromises that keep him feeling balanced. “I probably DJ once or twice in big events during the year, because on the weekends, it's family. I work so hard during the week, and it's so hard to have super-late nights and come home to four kids.”
“I still have my music, I still have my sources. Plus, I have an incredible set-up in Singapore, so I have my own DJ man-cave booth set up. If I wanted to go make a mix or play music, then everything's there. I'm still highly connected. All my friends are still into the scene. They send me music and I watch them play. It's still alive. As long as I can have that taste a couple of times a year, then I'm happy.”
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Perhaps the reason David seems to belong to several generations is that he’s accomplished such a wide variety of goals in so little time. Today, he’s the regional CEO of an international brokerage. He’s also a well-known DJ who’s played sets in Ibiza. He’s lived in four different countries, with Singapore as his current home. He’s married the love of his life, and finally has the family they’d always wanted together.
These milestones seem like they belong on different bucket lists, and yet he’s ticked each of them off. More importantly, he’s managed to have it all without giving up on any of his passions. By any estimation, he’s got several lifetimes’ worth of achievement behind him. By most standards, he can rest easy.
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For David, however, every closed chapter in his life seems to open a new one, as work led to DJing, and DJing led to family. He muses on what might come next, and speaks with candor:
“It's a debate at the moment. I'd love to come back here. The Philippines is always my home. My parents are here, my sister. But Amanda's sort of, ‘Do we want to come back to the Philippines just yet?’ She's very worried about the politics in the country—it's a mess, right—she's like, ‘Do we want to bring up our kids there?’”
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“So it's a debate, in terms of where we're going to be. I'd love to be here. We bought property down south in Sta. Elena and I'd love to be able to build there, and have that as home. But I think we probably have one more stop, post-Singapore, with Marsh. It just depends on where that's going to be.”
“I've always said that my milestone is to become the CEO of a region. A big region. And [Asia] is a massive region for Marsh. So I've ticked that box. Now, of course if I can go further, then great. Headquarters is in New York, and then our international division is in London, so those are the two that probably come up. We'll see. The career's been incredible. It's a firm that I highly respect, and has really been good to me.”
“But if the next stop means retirement, coming home after a couple of years, that'll be great as well. I just feel so very grounded in what Amanda and I have been able to build together as a couple. It's not perfect—no marriage is perfect—but we've worked at it. For us to be able to have four amazing kids and live the life that we're living, I think that's great.”
“My family is the number one priority for me,” he says. “Wherever it takes me, I'll be there.”
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