Jason James ’04 builds partnerships for a living, helping companies and organizations find ways to work together, grow, and create new opportunities. Over the past decade, he has worked across technology, SaaS, media, finance, education, and sports.

He started somewhere else entirely. Before business, Jason played soccer at the collegiate and post-collegiate levels, and worked with student-athletes through the Regional Development School program at the New York Red Bulls Academy. The move into partnerships came later, and he’s since built partner programs from scratch, led enterprise relationships across North America and Europe, and generated millions in revenue through client and partner work.

Today, Jason drives Partnerships and Business Development initiatives at NIMA Partners, a health-tech company focused on helping people with food allergies and dietary restrictions eat with greater confidence through portable food-testing technology. He also works with OMNI Breakthrough, supporting partnerships with universities and career-focused programs that help students prepare for recruiting and professional opportunities.

Jason holds an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Felician University. He is especially interested in talking with students about building relationships, creating opportunities, taking career risks, and navigating careers that do not necessarily follow a straight line.

At Millbrook, Jason played varsity basketball and soccer. An injury during soccer led to two surgeries and an unexpected month-long stay in the infirmary, where he developed a close relationship with the nurses and experienced firsthand how special the Millbrook community can be. He also learned how to “eat” fire during Intersession, so his Millbrook experience was definitely unique.