Overview
With over 17 years of experience ranging from start-ups to international enterprise corporations, James is a seasoned professional across a variety of skills. His many professional responsibilities have included event planning, fundraising, warehousing & logistics, sales, customer success, recruiting & hiring, team leadership, and even deejay and emcee for large events! In recent years, James has settled into Software as a Service (SaaS) roles within the Social Impact sector helping organizations achieve their goals for making a difference in the world.
Early Experience
I’ve always enjoyed working directly with people. Dating back to my first job, I’m thankful that I’ve always had opportunities to work in a way that directly interacts or serves others. At age 15, my first professional experience was working as a lifeguard at a water park in Augusta, GA. This wasn’t your typical “sit there and watch” lifeguarding experience. Since the next closest waterpark was over 2 hours away, every day we saw busloads of students from nearby summer camps dropped off at the waterpark, and many of whom did not know how to swim. I was constantly on high alert and had to save more lives than I can recall — sometimes over 10 per day! Those two summers taught me the importance of taking your job seriously — someone’s life may literally depend on it!
After those first two summers as a lifeguard, I worked as a shoe salesman at a Champs Sports in the Augusta Mall. Here I learned all the basics of sales, supply & demand, and customer service. I also learned the importance of organization & logistics because if shoes weren’t put back in the right place after each customer, you’d potentially lose the next customer while they waited. I really enjoyed the one-on-one interaction with customers, and I appreciated working on commission during the holidays and weekends.
Education
I participated in the Honors Program at the University of Georgia, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Religion and a 3.93 GPA. Along with Presidential Honors each semester, I was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. Go Dawgs!
While attending UGA, I worked a variety of roles for the University including postal delivery, front desk security for the dorms, and as a cook within one of the main dining halls. Outside of school, I enjoyed working as a birthday party attendant at an inflatable party zone called Pump It Up!
Career
My professional career has journeyed through non-profits, start-ups, and international enterprise organizations. After graduating from UGA, I interned with the non-profit Wesley Foundation for a year before transitioning to Charlotte, NC where I began work with a start-up company focused on fundraising in K-12 schools. Booster Enterprises (aka Boosterthon) was the first organization to bring “Fun Run” fundraising to schools nationwide, and it was an exciting journey spanning 14 years for me. saw the company grow from 30 employees to over 1,000 employees nationwide. My role & responsibilities grew from leading school events to leading the P&L for a market as General Manager, and eventually as Area Director in charge of recruiting, hiring, training, and leading a team of 50+ employees across multiple markets.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw drastic changes in my work with Booster, so I transitioned to a role with a Social Impact organization as an Enterprise Account Manager. I helped provide custom education solutions on behalf national & international banks. This role required customer success management, project management, and account mapping. I’m proud that I was able to lead our team through help two completely new and customized course launches on behalf of our largest partners who carried an ARR exceeding $1M annually.