About your speaker
. . . . . . or why should I bother listening to this guy rather than checking my Blackberry messages
Jim Webb has had a career that has been pretty much totally unplanned. After graduating from West Point, he achieved the status of being a Master Parachutist (airborne), was the distinguished honor graduate of his Ranger School class, and went on to command a Special Forces Operational Detachment.
Following military service he was drawn back to his Texas home to work on the Strategic Defense “Star Wars” Initiative as a research engineer at Texas Instruments.
Upon completing business school and receiving his MBA, he went on to a career in strategy consulting with such firms as Price Waterhouse, Deloitte & Touche, and EDS AT Kearney. Along the way he also had positions as the chief strategist for a global manufacturer and as a Director with AT&T in their international e-commerce initiative. Like many others, he was lured into the fast-paced dot-com world of the late 1990’s and walked into work one day to find out that the company (marchFIRST) failed.
He is currently the Chief of Corporate Strategy for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. At the same time he is an Adjunct Professor at Southern Methodist University where he has taught graduate level courses in strategy, entrepreneurship and innovation. He is currently working on his doctorate. His two children also attend SMU – allowing his wife to claim that she has three children at SMU.
Outside of work Jim has been a three time national judo champion (achieving the rank of 7th degree black belt), was the President of the United States Judo Association, and currently sits on the board of the US Olympic Committee’s National Governing Body. He also plays soccer, tennis, and is the president of the local Sherlock Holmes literary society (where he was recognized in England a few years ago with an honorary Master’s degree). He has served on the boards of Brookhaven Country Club, the Association of Strategic Planning, and was at one time the President of the Brookhaven Men’s Tennis Association. He was also at one time the president of the North Texas chapter of the Institute of Management Consultants where is also received the internationally recognized Certified Management Consultant designation.