On April 22, 2015, Jim retired as President and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, Inc. after 41 years in that position.  He continues to work part-time as an advisor to the Goodwill Industries Foundation of Central Indiana, Inc.

During his career with the Indianapolis-based Goodwill, the organization grew from 558 to more than 3,200 employees and from $3 million to $130 million in annual revenue.  Upon Jim’s retirement, the organization consisted of 57 retail stores, e-commerce operations employing over 100 people, 10 commercial services sites employing over 300 people, and 10 charter high schools with a total of more than 3,200 students.  Two-thirds of Goodwill’s employees have limited options because of a disability, felony record, low education level, or other significant barrier.

During the past decade Goodwill has become heavily involved in efforts to help raise education attainment levels and reduce generational poverty.  In 2004 the organization founded Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, a public charter shool that serves a high poverty, high special needs population of students.  In 2010, Goodwill created a unique high school, The Excel Center, to provide a diploma option for older youth and adults who left school before graduating.  Responding to strong demand, The Excel Center now operates in nine central Indiana locations with a total of nearly 3,000 students, and six more Excel Centers will open in Indiana by the fall of 2017.  Goodwill is also licensing the model to organizations in other states, and the first Excel Center outside of Indiana opened in 2014 in Austin, Texas.

In 2011 Goodwill began implementing Nurse-Family Partnership in Indiana.  NFP is a highly effective home visitation program for first-time mothers in low income households.  Goodwill’s 34 registered nurses are working with 600 expectant moms and new moms and their babies. Funding has been secured to more than double the number of families served over the next two years.

Throughout his career Jim was active in the international development efforts of Goodwill Industries International, and he was heavily involved in starting new Goodwills in South Korea.  He has served on numerous not-for-profit boards at the local, national, and international levels and chaired several of them.  He currently serves on the Dean’s Council of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business – Indianapolis, Advisory Board of the Georgia Tech School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech Grand Challenges Advisory Board, Economic Club of Indiana Advisory Council, Board of Directors of Building Tomorrow, and Urban Areas Commission of the Indiana University Public Policy Institute’s Thriving Cities Thriving State initiative.

In 2009 Jim was inducted into the Central Indiana Business Hall of Fame, and in 2011 he received the Distinguished Entrepreneur Award from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.  He is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Christian Theological Seminary and has been named a Sagamore of the Wabash by two Indiana governors.

Jim earned a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.  He is married to Jane, and they have two grown children.