James Mitchell

James Mitchell, Jr., has a 30+ year career as a leader in business, financial services, and government including 25-years with GE. He is a Qualified Financial Expert (QFE) and has domain expertise in M & A, joint ventures, company valuation, financial modeling, and deal integration. He has unique experience as a Chief Investment Officer who managed a $5.0 billion portfolio of hedge funds, private equity funds, and domestic equities pension portfolios. James has over two decades of governance experience including fiduciary of GE’s $40 billion Pension Trust and board leadership roles with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and Robert L. Toigo Foundation.

James is Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairs the Compensation Committees of Fora Financial, a private equity-backed, technology platform transforming the online commercial lending marketplace. In addition, he is a Board of Director and Chairs the Audit Committee of Aegion Corporation, a private equity-backed infrastructure and pipeline solutions multinational company, focused on water, energy, power plants, mining, and wastewater. He has served on advisory boards of private equity firms including New Mountain Capital, Palladium Equity Partners, RLJ Lodging, Warburg Pincus, Coller Capital and CD & R.

James is the Founder of JMJ Advisors, which advises C-suites clients and senior leaders on organic growth, building acquisition strategies, financing solutions to fund growth, right-sizing operations, and regulatory compliance issues. His clients have over $35 billion in book assets.

James is a designated NACD Board Governance Fellow, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Xavier University of Louisiana and sits on the boards of Venture Philanthropy Partners (invests in education-based nonprofits) and PartnersGlobal (NGO that drives democratic change and global conflict resolution). James graduated with a B.S. from Purdue University and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania.