James is a serial digital entrepreneur, who quit his investment banking day job to build a unique set of technology-based businesses around the world. He scaled Skype's global activities as part of its founding management team, managed the digital transformation of media group Condé Nast across 27 countries and led a $20m investment in fashion e-commerce leader Farfetch. He also co-founded UpMyStreet, one of the UK's first digital businesses, ran OpenX, a pre-IPO company delivering billions of digital ads daily, and advises both the UK Government and London Science Museum Group.
James has built a series of high-growth, global digital and multichannel businesses as entrepreneur and executive (Skype, Condé Nast, Yahoo!, OpenX, UpMyStreet), non-executive chairman and board director (Ticketscript, Farfetch, Vestiaire Collective) and advisor/investor (Seedcamp, Roli, Polar). He is now building a portfolio of board roles, investments and advisory positions.
He recently served as President of the digital division of Condé Nast International, where he led the multimedia transformation of iconic brands such as Vogue, GQ, Wired and Vanity Fair across 27 markets outside the USA. He also led Series C round investments in e-commerce leaders Farfetch and Vestiaire Collective, whose boards he joined as part of those transactions.
He was formerly CEO of OpenX, the world’s leading digital and mobile advertising platform, serving billions of ads daily across 100+ countries, backed by Index Ventures, Accel Partners and others.
James joined OpenX from Skype, where he served as part of the founding management team as its first Vice President to run the global Business Development team. Following the $4.1bn sale of the company to eBay Inc., he took responsibility for Skype's activities and performance across Europe, its largest region.
James previously held a range of senior commercial and general management roles at Yahoo! in Europe. Prior to that, he co-founded and ran UpMyStreet.com, an award-winning local information business, following a successful career in the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan Chase in London and New York City.
He currently also serves on the UK Government's Digital Advisory Board and on the Enterprises Board of the Science Museum Group in London.
James is a lively and passionate speaker, with a core belief in the power of technology to disrupt and transform for the better organisations, industries and all of our lives. He is ready to speak on a variety of topics, including business and industry transformation, globalisation and our shared digital future.
