As an early teenager, Jim coasted along at school and in life, without any clear idea of where he would like to head.  It wasn’t until the age of 16 that Jim started to “figure things out”, but as a hormonal teen, his key drivers were sex, politics, religion and sport, and while Jim has maintained a life-long interest in hockey, (ice hockey that is), he isn’t an adherent of any institutionalised religion now, even though his upbringing and education was in the Catholic school and university system.  A number of his teachers at university helped bring out Jim’s enthusiasm for learning, study and indeed primary research, including one fondly-remembered Jesuit lecturer who helped Jim find his passion for history and for finding out just how the world works. Jim completed an honours degree in History and Economics in Montreal and then undertook a Master’s Degree in Development Studies at Sussex University in England.

In 1970, Jim, who had already travelled with a friend almost the length of Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, returned to Africa to work as a regional planner for the Tanzanian government in Shinyanga, a remote part of the country.  It was while working there that Jim met Denise, a young British girl and the pair started to form a bond which has now lasted well over fifty years. Jim is eternally thankful for Denise’s presence in his life, noting she is the linchpin in the family and that it is her who keeps him honest!

It was while the pair were in between jobs while living in London in 1973 that Jim indulged his interest in mystical practices and the occult through working as a palmist on Carnaby Street for six months. As a palmist, Jim studied the intricate features of a human palm to reveal personality traits and characteristics so important to shaping the future. Though now considered pseudoscientific, there is a history of palmistry as common practice in many civilisations on the Eurasian landmass, long before the Christian era and it was considered such a threat by the Catholic church that two Popes issued papal edicts about the practice. Many in Hua Hin who know Jim’s economic legacy through his career in enterprise development will be surprised by this venture.  Jim and Denise followed the foray into palmistry and mysticism by publishing a book on the witchdoctors of the Sukuma tribe the following year, upon their return to Tanzania.

In early 1974, with a move to Arusha in Tanzania, Jim began his career proper. While others at the start of their career chose to focus on themselves and career advancement, that seems to have been the farthest thing from Jim’s mind throughout the vast majority of his working life. Jim’s CV lists many jobs, over 50 years, with impressively long official titles, with a variety of government and non-government agencies across the globe. One thing Jim’s different jobs all had in common was that they were not just money-spinners but a part of Jim’s life-mission to improve the lot of the impoverished, wherever they were to be found.

Even today, more than six years since his last paid employment came to an end, Jim’s greatest hope for the future is that humanity will evolve into a collective culture where the need to work together for the betterment of all is clearly acknowledged and the mentality of individual greed is unacceptable.  Jim sees the future of humankind’s continuing success being contingent upon collaboration and co-operation between all people. Jim has lived out this particular brand of selflessness throughout his career.

It is impressive that despite some of his initiatives having continuing and wide-ranging impact in the Enterprise Development sphere, Jim still believes his proudest achievement has been in raising his two sons while living overseas.  Jim credits the development of the CEFE International training program, a powerful training tool to boost entrepreneurial and leadership skills and empower sustainable economic development, which has now been delivered to 12 million low-income business people worldwide, as his career highlight because of its ongoing capacity to improve the lives of those living in poverty, technically defined as people living on less than $US2 per day. Jim and a colleague were also responsible, in the first decade of this century, for the elaboration and testing of an internationally-accredited system for measuring the impact of development projects across the globe.  This measuring tool has now been used to gauge the efficacy of development projects worth over a billion dollars.

What characterises the multitude of projects with which Jim has been involved is that the money, whether from international aid sources or corporate or private benefactors, has not been used to provide material aid directly, and as a result for a limited time to low-income people, but instead has been used strategically to sustain innovations that continuously add value and kick start their learning of essential skills to support themselves rather than needing to rely upon handouts, something notoriously unreliable. Jim required all development projects in his purview to be sustainable, their core focus aimed at boosting the self-esteem and dignity of their targeted clients, as well as their incomes. Much as Jim is a “big picture” man, the welfare of the individual matters dearly to him, and he has made lifelong friends through his work, especially in Nepal. Jim acknowledges that everybody has their own specific needs and pathway to happiness, but the alleviation of poverty is always a great start.

The best compliments Jim has received have been along the lines of, “That wouldn’t have happened without your involvement.”, yet, to his credit, Jim remains a humble man, knowing that unbridled capitalism leads to tyranny, social injustice, misery and hopelessness for many. One of Jim’s favourite quotes comes from “Man and Superman” published in 1905 by George Bernard Shaw. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man”.  Jim is clearly such an unreasonable man.

Working life finalised, Jim and Denise moved to the Hua Hin area in 2018, choosing it over the potential retirement lifestyle they could have achieved in either Canada or the United Kingdom because of its weather, superior healthcare and assisted living potential and most importantly its Buddhist culture in which both feel so at home. Jim had first visited Hua Hin way back in the early 1980s and clearly the town made a good impression on him back then.

At his core, Jim is a man who cares. Even though he no longer engages in paid employment, Jim needs to feel useful in his community. Khun Jim is “The Cutting Edge Sharpener of Hua Hin” and provides a free service to those who need a sharp blade for almost any purpose. While working on a sharpening project, Jim feels free from pressure, loving the feeling of making a dull, almost useless item into the best one it can possibly be. Another of Jim’s long-term hobbies is ballroom dancing. While the tango is Jim’s personal favourite, he enjoys the sense of intimacy that many of the ballroom styles engender, and he certainly makes a dapper impression on the dance floor.

Having his family around during the holiday period is guaranteed to make Jim happy, yet seeing the world “move to reject common sense” is particularly annoying and worrisome to him. Across his lifetime, Jim has noted improvements in technology, health, knowledge and communication which have been positive for our world.  However, the undue commercialisation of the global media has led to the emergence of a disinformation era where Jim sees governance being bought by big money, much to his disappointment.

Jim shares a profound interest in early Homo sapiens history, and the possibilities for the future of our species with Professor Yuval Hariri, an Israeli historian, science writer and public intellectual whom Jim cites as the living person he most admires. The thing Jim would not be able to live without is his faculties, as his favourite place in the world is inside his own head. Fortunately, there is no question that Jim remains at his cognitive prime and sharp as a tack.