Jim Bennett

Jim draws on over 40 years of experience as a management consultant, senior line manager, and board leader in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. Jim began his business career with McKinsey & Company after graduating from Cornell University and Harvard Law School. His 30 years with McKinsey spanned strategy, operations, and organizational effectiveness across a wide range of countries, functions, and industries. These included the managing partnership of the Canadian and later Midwest practices, membership on worldwide partner personnel committees, membership on the firm's worldwide executive committee and Shareholders Committee (McKinsey's equivalent of a board of directors). Jim's career continued at KeyCorp, where he joined as Senior Executive Vice President in 1998 and the chair of Retail Banking, the company's largest business with $600 million in operating profit. He was the senior executive responsible for bank-wide operations, marketing, strategy, communications, and public affairs. Since leaving Key in 2001, Jim has been the CEO of two early stage companies and the chair of a third. In that same seven year period, he was a senior advisor to the Gallup Organization, where he became familiar with Gallup's strengths-based approach to employee and customer engagements. He continued his CEO level consulting work through Bennett Group LLC, a firm he founded in 2002 with practices in strategy, organization effectiveness, and board governance. Throughout his career, Jim has been deeply involved in the non profit sector and has worked in the fields of economic development, social services, healthcare delivery, education, and the arts – having been a board member of dozens of organizations and chair of many. Jim is a lifelong lover of basketball, and has played in masters tournaments across the country with his team usually winning the 60-65 age category championship at the local, national, and world levels.