Jim serves as Co-Chief Executive Officer of J. D. Irving, Limited (JDI), a diverse family owned company founded in 1882. JDI has operations in Canada and the United States, and its 15,000+ employees are engaged in a spectrum of business segments, including forestry, construction, shipbuilding, transportation, and a range of consumer products.
Jim spent four years at Hyde, arriving in 1967 and graduating in Hyde’s last all-boys class in 1971. His personal growth over his four years in Bath is reflected in the fact that after earning “Freshman of the Year” honors – as voted by the seniors – he went on to direct Freshman Orientation his senior year. A varsity athlete – football and lacrosse – he also showed signs of his future business acumen as the business manager of The Mansion and as a member of the student admissions committee.
After Hyde, Jim went on to Nathaniel Hawthorne College (NH), where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and political science. His tenure at JDI actually began during his college days, since he spent summers deep in the woods of Maine and Canada learning about forestry from roots to branches in a most literal sense.
Jim serves on the board of The Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts. His community work includes capital campaign leadership for the regional Nature Conservancy of Canada initiatives as well as for the University of Moncton. He is also a founding partner of CAST – the Collaboration for
Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow – a project that engages universities, government, and industry in the cause of saving wild Atlantic salmon.
Jim and his wife Lynn live in Saint John and are the parents of four grown children.