Area D3 Governor, 2004-2005
President, 2003-2004
VP, Membership, 2002-2003
Mentor (Ongoing)
Available Speaker

2004 International Speech Contest - 2nd Place at Club Level.
2004 Tall Tales Contest - 1st Place at Club Level.
2003 Humorous Speaking Contest - 1st Place at Area Level.
2003 Table Topics Contest - 3rd Place at Club Level.
2003 International Speech Contest - 2nd Place at Club Level.
2002 Table Topics Contest - 1st Place at District Level (highest level)
2002 Evaluation Contest - 1st Place at Club Level.
2002 Tall Tales Contest - 1st Place at Area Level.

James grew up in California but has spent almost half his life on the East Coast. For the last 9 years he has headed the inventing group at Walker Digital where he is a named inventor on more than 175 issued patents. These patents cover fields such as telecommunications, financial services, electronic commerce, retail systems, videogames, lottery, casino gaming, healthcare, and vending. He has helped incubate a number of businesses while at Walker Digital, including Priceline.com and RetailDNA. James also serves on the Board of Directors of By Kids For Kids, a company which markets children’s inventions. Before joining Walker Digital, James was a management consultant with Deloitte & Touche Consulting in their San Francisco office working with high tech clients such as Apple and Hayes Microcomputer Products. He also spent several years in Las Vegas as a financial analyst and games expert for the Tropicana Resort Hotel & Casino. For relaxation, he plays tournament chess, poker, backgammon, and Scrabble.

James joined Toastmasters in 2001 and has worked diligently to grow the club. Under his current term of presidency, the club has expanded to nearly 80 members, making Greater Stamford Toastmasters one of the twenty largest Toastmasters clubs in the world. It is the only club in Connecticut that meets six times per month. James has a track record of success in Toastmasters competitions, including a first place finish (out of 2,000 district members) in the Table Topics contest in 2002.

James has spoken before a wide range of audiences and is skilled at grabbing and holding on to the audience’s attention. Whether they are high school students trying to cause trouble in the back row or droopy-eyed computer specialists at a conference, James is adept at reining in their attention and interest.

He regularly teaches two seminars for Toastmasters - a Memory Workshop (which emphasizes practical techniques to quickly improve your memory) and a Beginner’s Night (which focuses on reducing the nervousness of inexperienced speakers).

In January of 2004 James founded the Stamford Comedy Workshop to provide a venue for teaching improvisational games and standup comedy. The more experienced members of this workshop are available to run Improv Nights for local corporations (on site), providing relatively low-cost entertainment and team building exercises for employees.

James is available for private speech consultations to business executives, providing help with speech preparation, memorization, and presentation skills. Having provided written and verbal feedback on more than 500 speeches, there are few public speaking issues that have escaped his eye.