James Walton founded and serves as Managing Member of Walton Advisories Limited, a consulting firm serving startup companies, middle market companies, and public/private universities & colleges. He specializes in using industry best practices, as well as untraditional techniques, to transform organizations into model 21st century enterprises. He incorporates many resources like data analytics, marketing automation, and brand valuation in his engagements. Some recent engagements include:
- Prepared a small business for Series A funding by mitigating risk, developing culture, and creating key business differentiators.
- Led the design of a Business Engagement Center, a “front-door” for industry that provides visibility into daily engagements for a university.
- Used data analytics to define the “reach” of the organization, a way to visually understand who the brand reaches and how.
- Developed new short- and long-term revenue models that look differently at outsourcing, real estate, and corporate partnerships.
- Developed new models of venture capital for university startups that include donors and faculty/staff in addition to VC & private equity firms.
Prior to Walton Advisories Limited, Mr. Walton served as the Vice President of Business Development at Science & Technology Campus Corporation (SciTech) at The Ohio State University. He was responsible for leading all business development initiatives in the future development of the research park. While there, he helped develop many public-private research partnerships, including the creation of the Cardinal Health Molecular Imaging Pharmaceutical Research Center. This center matched the needs of private industry with the strengths of the university to create a true research park partnership.
From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Walton served as the Associate Director of Strategic Relations in the Office of the President and The Office of Economic & Workforce Development at The Ohio State University. He was responsible for coordinating strategic relationship efforts across all units & colleges at the university, and focused on creating positive customer experiences with all industry engagements. He was part of a team that recruited and established the IBM Client Center for Advanced Analytics, the first of its kind within IBM’s strategic direction in data science. He helped structure the partnership between IBM and the university to create a pipeline to talent, which was part of IBM’s goal to create 500 new data science jobs over 3 years. Prior to this role, he spent many years leading various projects at the university, including information technology, athletics, development, legal affairs, real estate & physical planning, and student life.
Mr. Walton is also very active in startup companies, and serves as a mentor to various startups in the Midwest and East Coast. He has helped produce many hackathons, including leading the fundraising for Ohio State’s 2014 Hackathon. He also is the co-founder for Kicklet, an online tool that helps developers & designers showcase their skills, and match them up with peers of similar interests.
Although he now resides in New York City, he has a passion for the outdoors and tries to explore as much as he can. His strong belief in telling stories of “what’s behind the label” helped co-found True Origin Coffee, a New York-based company that tells the stories behind some of the most incredible coffees from around the world. He also founded and leads Kit & Coffee, a exciting new to buy, share, and enjoy coffee & other beverages.
Mr. Walton holds a BA in Middle Childhood Education (’08) and an MBA (’12) from The Ohio State University.