Jim is a Special Advisor and Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings LLC, which he and two colleagues formed in 2000. Riverstone is a private equity firm that has invested $40 billion in energy entities in 180 companies in 11 countries. He has served on the Boards of Directors of several public entities.

Jim began his career in 1968 at Bell Labs working on advanced ballistic missile defense systems and other DoD programs. He was part of a team that was technical advisor to the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 1).

He received an MBA from Stanford University in 1976 and began a career in New York with J.P. Morgan specializing in energy finance. In 1986 he joined Golman Sachs, helping international energy companies with corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 he advised the new Yeltsin government in developing foreign investment in Russian energy projects. He returned to J.P. Morgan in 1994 as head of its Energy Group. There he helped Saudi Aramco in its merger with Shell Oil's US refining and marketing assets and advised the US Government in the privatization of the United States Enrichment Corporation.

At Texas he was a member of the Student Senate, a Cactus Outstanding Student and Goodfellow and honor societies Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi. He has served on the Board of Overseers for the Hoover Institution at Stanford and the Cockrell School Engineering Advisory Board. He is a recipient of the Cockrell School Distinguished Engineering Graduate honor. He is married to Patricia who earned her bachelor's degree from UT in 1967.