James leads the development of high impact, strategic relationships to influence system scale change at global, regional and national levels and across business, government and academia. He also leads the development of organisational capability in relationship management, including partnership and engagement strategies, and supports Climateworks teams to drive and leverage strategic partnerships and stakeholder engagement to achieve impact objectives. 

James has worked in leadership and management roles within the not-for-profit sector for over two decades, specialising in cross-sector partnerships and stakeholder relationship management and coordination, strategic planning, advocacy and political engagement, and diverse program and project management. In past roles, he led the development of local, national and regional partnerships in the United States, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. With a focus on impact, these partnerships led to positive outcomes across climate change adaptation, economic development and gender and youth programming.

Prior to joining Climateworks, James worked for Oxfam Australia overseeing its Asia and Middle East partnerships. He led organisational capability initiatives including the development of Oxfam’s strategic partnership approach, which established a co-design process with strategic partners in Asia and resulted in context-specific partnership models and mutually-beneficial partnerships.

James holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies (California State University, Long Beach, USA) and a Masters of Science with Distinction in International Development (DePaul University, Chicago, USA).