Jim is a 1985 graduate of the University of Illinois with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering. At Illinois he was active with Sigma Phi Delta Engineering Fraternity where he held multiple leadership roles. Within Industrial Engineering he was active in the IIE organization and held roles as EOH coordinator and president. He was recognized as a “Knight of Saint Patrick” for his accomplishments in the IE department. He was also a four-year starter on the intercollegiate soccer club. Upon his graduation from Illinois, he began his nearly 39-year career at Motorola that concluded with his retirement from Motorola Solutions as of December 31st, 2023. He received an MBA from the evening program at Northwestern in 1990. During his career at Motorola / Motorola Solutions he held many different engineering and operations positions in both the Supply Chain and Information Technology organizations. Highlight roles include: Manufacturing Team Lead for the European digital cellular base stations; Manufacturing Operations Lead for a 3 shift 300-person printed circuit board production operation for the US digital cellular base stations; Supply Chain Lead for the Networks global ERP systems deployment; Director of Strategy for Global External Manufacturing; Supply Chain Director for the the global deployment of Oracle ERP; Director of Supply Chain IT for multiple transformation projects.
Jim is married to Diane (Illinois ‘86) and they have four children: Jimmy (Illinois ‘16); Kevin (Illinois ‘18); Ryan (Michigan ‘20); Colleen (Notre Dame ‘23). In addition to active participation in his church, he has now followed one of his passions – coaching soccer – and accepted a full-time high school coaching position as an assistant coach in both the boy’s and girl’s programs. Jim is excited to be reconnecting to the Engineering School at the University of Illinois that he credits for being the foundation of his career.