Jim Neal is a politician, community leader, and businessman from North Carolina. He has held senior positions in investment banking and was the CEO of two healthcare startups. Neal ran for US Senate in North Carolina in 2007, becoming only the second openly gay candidate. Despite finishing second in the Democratic primary, he received over a quarter million votes. Neal currently works as a consultant and writer, and serves on various nonprofit boards. He lives in Chapel Hill with his two sons.

1. JIM NEAL
CURRICULUM VITAE
Jim Neal is a politician and community leader from North Carolina. He serves as the Chairman of
The Agema Group LLC, a consultancy that advises institutional investors in assessing alternative
investment portfolio assets and analysis of public policy relevant to those institutions’ thematic
investments. In 2007 he announced his candidacy for the US Senate as a first-time candidate. He
was the Democratic challenger to Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), subsequently opposed in the
primary by Kay Hagan who enjoyed substantial financial support from the Democratic Party
leadership. Despite finishing second to Hagan, Jim garnered a quarter-of-a-million votes, the second
highest total received in NC history by a runner-up in a Senate primary. He received national acclaim
as only the second openly gay person in US history to run for the Senate.
After graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Neal began his career as a
financial analyst with Goldman Sachs. He entered graduate school at the University of Chicago two
years later. While a full-time student he worked for private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner to
supplement his educational expenses. Thereafter he joined the investment banking department at
Salomon Brothers and subsequently held senior positions with Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and
Piper Jaffray. He also has been the CEO of two start-up companies in the healthcare technology and
information services sectors respectively, each of which employed approximately 100 team
members.
Jim served as a member of the Board of Governors of The New School from 2002 until 2006. He
has served on numerous corporate and civic boards including the Investment Association of New
York, United Medical Industrial Group of China, The Alliance for the Arts, The Children’s Bureau
of Los Angeles, Project Open Hand, and the Michel Fund. In the aftermath of 9/11, he served on
an economic task force formed by The New York City Partnership-a highly regarded business and
civic organization founded by David Rockefeller- where he oversaw a working group that made
recommendations to Mayor Michael Bloomberg on tactics to grow New York’s economic base. In
2004 Jim was a member of the 2004 National Campaign Finance Committees for the Wes Clark and
John Kerry presidential campaigns. He also served as a lay minister in the Episcopal Diocese of New
York where he served residents of a private living facility for the mentally ill. Mr. Neal has been a
lecturer at the University of North Carolina, DePaul University and The New School and a featured
guest on CNBC, CBS, Fox, ABC and NPR. He is currently a member of the the Board of Freedom
House Recovery Center, Board of Advisors of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Leadership
Council and a contributing writer to The Huffington Post.
Jim is a native of Greensboro, NC. He lives in Chapel Hill, NC and is the father of two adult sons.
He is writing a book on contemporary American political dynamics.
Mr. Neal enjoys works on the lives of President Lyndon Johnson and Winston Churchill, political
and biographical non-fiction, American literature and contemporary fiction. As a teen he was a
North Carolina junior tennis champion and the starting center on his high school’s basketball team.
He is a collegiate basketball fan, and enjoys tennis and hiking, visits to the coast, chatting with just
about anyone and tracking grizzly bears in Montana and Wyoming.