Jim has been Executive Director of the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association since 2000.  Prior to joining CIADA, Jim was the Director of Governmental Affairs and Development for the South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association and before that, Assistant Vice President for Legislative Affairs and Corporate Communications for Unisun Insurance Company. 

Jim is a native North Carolinian, was born in Pitt County and still has family spread from Greenville, NC to Morganton in the western part of the state.  He is a graduate of East Carolina University where he was a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.  He has done graduate work in law and history at the University of South Carolina and The Citadel.  He is a graduate of Leadership South Carolina, the Buckley Executive Public Speaking Course, the Institute on Politics and Public Policy, the Negotiations Program for Senior Executives at Harvard, the College of Insurance Management Program at Princeton and the Duke University Program in Non-Profit Management.

Jim is a member of the American Society of Association Executives, the South Carolina Society of Association Executives, the Association Executives of North Carolina and the Association Executive Council of the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association.   Jim holds the ‘Certified Association Executive’ (CAE) designation from ASAE along with several other designations, notable among which are the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Associate in Underwriting from the Insurance Institute of America.  

 Jim is a former Army Captain and Vietnam Veteran.