James A. Harmon

James A. Harmon "assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of the World Resources Institute in November 2004. Mr. Harmon has spent much of his career as an investment banker and serves as Chairman of Harmon & Co., LLC, a firm that he founded in 2001 to provide financial advice to corporations and governments. In 1997, Mr. Harmon was appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the US Senate to become the Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States ("Ex-Im Bank"). He completed is term in 2001. During his tenure at Ex-Im Bank, Mr. Harmon was an advocate for extending the scope of Ex-Im Bank’s environmental guidelines and for the formal, multilateral adoption of substantive environmental standards by all OECD member country official export credit agencies. From 1986 to 1997, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Schroder Wertheim & Co.

"In 2003, Mr. Harmon served as a member on the Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure, which was formed to consider solutions to the future global financial needs of the water sector. The Panel’s membership was drawn from the international financial community and included high-level representatives from actual or potential sources of finance, government and other public bodies involved in funding the water sector.

"As Chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in 2002, Mr. Harmon partnered CCA with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Institute for International Economics and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, to launch the Commission on Capital Flows to Africa. Mr. Harmon chaired this Commission. The Commission presented its final report to the U.S. government in June 2003.

"Mr. Harmon is a Senior Advisor to the Rothschild Group and is member of the Board of Directors of Questar Corporation, an integrated gas exploration, distribution and pipeline company. He is a member of the Global Advisory Board of JER Partners, a J.E. Robert Company. He is on the International Advisory Council of TNK-BP Ltd., a Russian integrated oil and gas company. Mr. Harmon is a Trustee Emeritus of Brown University and Barnard College and is a member of the Board of Directors of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Mr. Harmon is a member of the Board of Directors of Africare, the Center for Global Development and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Mr. Harmon received a B.A. in English Literature from Brown University and an MBA in Finance from Wharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania.“


 * Member, Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Latin America
 * Advisory Council (2008), Technoserve