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48 48 If there's one thing Alan Jaffa thoroughly enjoys, it's talking with people. In fact, if the CEO of Safeguard Properties could have his perfect world, he'd spend all day chatting with his employees about their work, families and lives. Since taking the helm of the company five years ago, he's made a practice of rotating around the Cleveland offices so that he's available at each location once a week. To enhance his communications reach, he also shoots a regular series of videos called "Java with Jaffa" to address key issues and provide updates to employees. "I don't like cameras that much, but once we get rolling and I start talking, I don't care that the camera is there," the gregarious Jaffa reveals about his taping experiences. ose listening to Jaffa immediately hear two things in his voice: the great passion he has for his job, his company and his employees, and the fact that he is a native New Yorker. e latter also conveys that it's highly likely Jaffa acquired his love of conversations growing up one of nine children in the bustling borough of Brooklyn, New York. He matriculated through the Jewish Day School system, and after he graduated, Jaffa spent two years studying in Israel. When he returned, he took some courses at Brooklyn College, but a growing fascination with business and imports and exports led him to launch a business with his brother. e two started buying and selling closeout merchandise. In 1993, his aunt told the 21-year-old bachelor about a young woman in Cleveland who was the niece of one of her childhood friends. Shortly after, at anksgiving, Jaffa met Robert Klein's oldest daughter, and the two quickly fell in love and were married seven months later in June 1994. During their courtship, the couple visited his future wife's family in Cleveland several times, where Jaffa spent some time with Robert, visiting his start- up mortgage field services enterprise. Granted, he was intrigued by what he saw, and he even agreed to perform some field inspections of New York properties to help out. But a year or so later, when his father-in-law asked him to move so he could work full-time for Safeguard, he initially had doubts about leaving home. Finally, however, in October of 1995, Jaffa agreed to give it a six-month trial run. e Java with Jaffa Executive Profile: Alan Jaffa