Jim is a Managing Director in the Institutional Investment Management Group at Mesirow Financial in Chicago. Jim is a born and raised Chicagoan and has been very active in helping attract bright and capable students and athletes to attend Wabash. He has served as President of the National Association of Wabash Men, Class Agent for the Class of 1984, and President of the Wabash Club of Chicago. He is a proud member of the Wabash College Athletics Hall of Fame.
As an undergraduate Jim was an economics major, a four-year letterman on the Little Giant Football team, and active with the Sphinx Club and the Caveman Bouts – a charity boxing exhibition to benefit Special Olympics of Montgomery County. Jim was the recipient of the Dean Stephens Award for character and achievement his junior year and co-recipient of the Frank Hugh Sparks Award for all around student achievement his senior year.
Jim deeply supports and is passionate about the mission, core values, and deep traditions of the College. Places like Wabash need to exist and remain as viable and visible choices to responsible and capable young men deciding on the next, most prudent collegiate path to take in their lives. Each Wabash alumnus has a duty to bring integrity and fame to the most honored name of Wabash.
Jim’s interest in running for Trustee of the College has everything to do with giving back all Wabash has, unconditionally, given to him. The extraordinary influence and stewardship of the College’s Trustees while Jim attended Wabash in the early 1980s was profound. Barney Hollet, Dave Orr, Bill Hayes, Rem Johnston, and Cal Black, along with Dean Moore were a breed of Little Giants unlike most men Jim had met to that point his life. That example of leadership and guidance has led to a life of devotion, support and deep fondness for his alma mater. Becoming a trustee would fulfill a near 25 year ambition, somewhat coinciding, incidentally, with his graduation from Wabash in 1984.
Jim resides in the western suburbs of Chicago with his wife Kerry, seventh grade daughter Maggie and third grade son Macauley. He is a member of the 1832 Society.