Jim joined CMEA Capital in 2001 as Managing General Partner and he specializes in investing in technology and services companies. CMEA is a venture capital firm in San Francisco with over $1B under management. He has served on the Board of Directors of Hasso Plattner Ventures, a European fund; Jobvite, an internet platform for referral hiring; LiveOps, a provider of on-demand call center solutions; Odyssey Logistics, a provider of outsourced logistics management services to the chemical industry; Luminate, an internet platform company; Blekko, an internet search company, and Untangle, a network virtualization software company. Jim was also on the board of CMEA portfolio companies PathScale, acquired by QLogic (Nasdaq:QLGC), and Teros, acquired by Citrix (Nasdaq:CTXS) and Apriso acquired by Dassault Systems (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA). Jim is also, Chairman of Alignment Financial Services, and asset management company serving pension funds and foundations.
Prior to joining CMEA, Jim was a founder and entrepreneur. He founded Skyway Systems, a high technology services company. He was company President and leader behind the supply chain strategy that twice landed Skyway on the Inc. Magazine's list of fastest growing U.S. companies. Inc. Magazine also named Jim as one of the Entrepreneurs of the Year. Skyway, with over 1,300 employees, was subsequently acquired by Union Pacific Corporation (UPN). Prior to Skyway, Mr. Watson was with IBM's large computer systems division.
Jim graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and served five years
as a Navy pilot.
Current role