Jeff Janssen was born in San Mateo and was raised in Santa Clara. He became interested in politics in 1978 when he first heard former Governor Jerry Brown speak at De Anza College.

Jeff began his political career working as a volunteer coordinator for the Tom Bradley for Governor campaign in 1986. He joined the Gephart for President campaign in late 1987 and worked in Iowa for several months as a Field Organizer before moving on to the national Advance staff in 1988.

Jeff returned to Santa Clara County to manage several more local campaigns and in 1989 Jeff joined the district office of Congressman Norm Mineta where he worked for the next 5 years filling various roles focusing on social service and healthcare issues.

After leaving Congressman Mineta’s office, Jeff returned to campaign work where he managed the successful effort to create the Open Space Authority in 1994, the Sam Farr for Congress race also in 1994 and the Mike Honda for State Assembly campaign in 1995-96. Jeff left politics in 1997 to go into the private sector where he had a successful career building and managing sales organizations for small high tech companies.

Jeff returned to politics in 2001 to manage the campaign for Rod Diridon Jr. in his bid for State Assembly. He has also worked on projects with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the San José Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. Jeff joined Chuck Reed in December 2005 as his Campaign Manager.

Jeff received his B.A. from Northern Illinois University and lives in Los Gatos with his wife Jennifer and two children.