Hailing from Southern California and based in Shanghai since 2011, James is a second-generation mechanical-manufacturing engineer, serial entrepreneur, with proven hardware/software development credentials. Throughout his teens, James cut his teeth first as an apprentice mechanic, then machinist, and foundryman. A competitive gamer, James’s interest in real time strategy games led to his joining Stainless Steel Studios as its Producer in 1999. There, he managed the development and release of Empire Earth, a title garnering Gamespy’s 2001 PC Game of the Year, certified AAA and spawned a franchise that released a total of 6 titles with cumulative sales exceeding three million units. Throughout the 2000’s, as the VP of Operations at ABN Industrial, James oversaw the company’s post 9/11 recovery, modernizing the company’s manufacturing processes and technologies, delivering over a thousand SKU’s for use across dozens of aerospace and defense systems.
At ABN, James directed the implementation of the company’s AS9100 and NADCAP quality management systems. In 2011, following closing ABN’s domestic manufacturing operations, James joined the burgeoning solar industry as the Director of China Operations for ZepSolar. With a backpack and a suitcase in tow, James parachuted into China where he oversaw Zep’s strategic supply chain selection, initiated tooling, and simultaneously launching four product lines within six months. Building out his in-country team, James continued to optimize product designs for manufacturability, achieving core product COGS reduction by over 70%, and allowed Zep to aggressively capture 70% of US residential solar market share. These efforts culminated with the company’s successful acquisition by SolarCity in 2013 for $158 million dollars. The supply chain created for ZepSolar, then SolarCity, and subsequently Tesla Solar, have delivered over 3GW of installed residential solar systems in the United States.
Since 2016, James has led Gexin Consulting, a manufacturing and supply chain advisory group he founded with team members situated throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Gexin specializes in advising early stage product-based startups in assessing the manufacturability and scalability of their concepts, facilitating strategic supply chain selection, and rapidly commercializing industry disrupting products. James and his team have engaged industry leaders wishing to preserve their competitive edge through value engineering and streamlining of supply chains and manufacturing practices. To date, all clients have been introduced through word of mouth referrals.
James is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Solar Energy Industries Association, the Theta Xi Fraternity, Society of Pershing Rifles, and the Shanghai branch of the American Chamber of Commerce. He holds a first-degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu and is a certified Red Cross firstresponder. In between his many startup endeavors, James pursued his professional education first at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then the University of California, Davis.
