Experience

the red helicopter

• United States
• E-Learning Providers
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Founder

  • Sep 2021 - 2 years 4 months

  red helicopter is an operating system and community for those leaders and organizations committed to creating value in a sustainable, human-centered way. Our processes and curricula are taught in the leading academic centers and implemented by the most innovative public and private sector entities. By valuing the intangibles, through kindness and math, we create agility and balance, and thus organic innovation. www.redhelicopter.com



HarperCollins Publishers

• United States
• Book and Periodical Publishing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Published Author

  • Sep 2022 - 1 year 4 months

  New York City Metropolitan Area red helicopter: a parable for our times --will be live on April 9, 2024. Available for pre-order now. Harper One publishes books for the world we want to live in.



Howard University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship | Senior Advisor to Global Center for Women....

  • Jul 2021 - 2 years 6 months

  Washington DC-Baltimore Area



Ashoka

• United States
• Civic and Social Organizations
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Elected Founding Member - Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur (E2) Network

  • Dec 2022 - 1 year 1 month

  Washington, District of Columbia, United States The E2 Network brings together high-impact entrepreneurs from the business sector with the world’s most powerful social entrepreneurs at Ashoka.



MIT Sloan School of Management

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior Lecturer. Senior Advisor; Executive-in-Residence of MIT Leadership Center

  • Dec 2020 - 3 years 1 month

  Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Organizational Dynamics, Center for Leadership



Xponance, Inc.

• United States
• Investment Management
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Member Board of Directors

  • Jan 2023 - 1 year

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States A $16+ billion asset management firm founded by Tina Byles Williams. Multi-manager and direct public strategies working with the largest institutional clients, including pension funds.



United Talent Agency

• United States
• Entertainment Providers
• 700 & Above Employee

• Client - MultiMedia and Speaker

  • Aug 2020 - 3 years 5 months

  Los Angeles Metropolitan Area https://www.utaspeakers.com/speaker/james-rhee



FirePine Group, a 🚁 company

• Founder and CEO

  • 2009 - 14 years

  Greater Boston Area Founded in 2009, FirePine Group, LLC ("FirePine") invests in special situations requiring structured capital and operational catalysts, with a particular focus in the rapidly transforming, branded retail-consumer product industry. Using algorithmic, technological, marketing and cultural change, FirePine helps companies formulate and apply bespoke, data-driven long-term solutions in a consensus-driven process. With expertise in growth and distress, FirePine leverages a proprietary valuation… Show more Founded in 2009, FirePine Group, LLC ("FirePine") invests in special situations requiring structured capital and operational catalysts, with a particular focus in the rapidly transforming, branded retail-consumer product industry. Using algorithmic, technological, marketing and cultural change, FirePine helps companies formulate and apply bespoke, data-driven long-term solutions in a consensus-driven process. With expertise in growth and distress, FirePine leverages a proprietary valuation system to focus first on defining or redefining core value and then harvesting it through customer analytics with an integrated marketing strategy and a comprehensive assessment of operational process flow. A flexible mandate and broad experience set allows for FirePine to invest in creative securities and forge symbiotic solutions with a diverse set of partners, including entrepreneurs, regulated lending institutions, workout groups, activist hedge funds and control and non-control equity investors. We have invested the capital of some of the world's most sophisticated investors and their family offices. Critical to our success is the ability to marry data with operations and people with strategy. We deliver both capital and change at important inflection points in a company's life, and always with a long-term outlook. With a well-documented investment and operating track record, and a reputation for fair dealing and straight talk, FirePine empowers businesses and their principals to author and then execute the strategies necessary to leverage core strength into future growth. We excel in change management, and our involvement attracts smart operating resources and smart capital. In select circumstances, we will invest time without capital. Visit us at www.firepinegroup.com Show less


JP Morgan Chase Advancing Black Pathways Council
• Member

  • Feb 2019 - 4 years 11 months

CEO Action - Racial Equity
• Member of Governing Commitee

  • 2020 - 3 years


Duke University School of Law

• United States
• Higher Education
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Senior Lecturer

  • 2016 - 7 years

  Course: “The Way the World Works” (Money, Life, Joy and valuing enterprises)



Conscious Capitalism, Inc.

• United States
• Civic and Social Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Board Member

  • Jan 2021 - May 2022

  https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/boardofdirectors


National Retail Federation
• United States
• Retail
• 100 - 200 Employee
• Board Member + Chairman Innovation Advisory Council

  • Jan 2017 - Aug 2020


Ashley Stewart, Inc.

• United States
• Retail Apparel and Fashion
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Executive Chairman and CEO

  • Aug 2013 - Jul 2020

  Secaucus, New Jersey The unprecedented transformation of Ashley Stewart is proof of how trust and joy, grounded in math and amplified through digital excellence, can overcome impossible odds and fuel individual and enterprise-wide innovation. It is a tangible example of the power of diverse ecosystems, as well as a commentary on a potential way forward for achieving multi-stakeholder goals. At its core, it is also the story of an unlikely friendship between a first generation Asian-American private equity investor… Show more The unprecedented transformation of Ashley Stewart is proof of how trust and joy, grounded in math and amplified through digital excellence, can overcome impossible odds and fuel individual and enterprise-wide innovation. It is a tangible example of the power of diverse ecosystems, as well as a commentary on a potential way forward for achieving multi-stakeholder goals. At its core, it is also the story of an unlikely friendship between a first generation Asian-American private equity investor (who raised his hand to become the self-described “least qualified CEO”) and a predominantly Black female employee group who placed their mutual trust in each other, learned from one another, and then proceeded to quietly shock the world. His inspirational story has been featured in media outlets such as the Good Business Issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Thrive Global, USA Today, Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Women's Wear Daily, Morgan Stanley's Access and Opportunity Podcast, ABC News, National Urban League’s State of Black America, and the Huffington Post. James is a regional winner of the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the winner of one of five 2016 Power Player Awards granted by the National Retail Federation, and the recipient of the 2017 Black Retail Action Group Business Achievement Award, the 2018 Temple Fox School of Business Information Technology Innovator Award, the 2018 Essex County Urban League Centennial William M. Ashby Award for community building and a 2019 One To World Fulbright Award. Show less


GB Merchant Partners
• Managing Director; Principal of Gordon Brothers Group

  • 2009 - 2012


JW Childs Associates, L.P.

• Manufacturing

• Senior Investment Professional

  • 2000 - 2007

  Greater Boston Area



Merrill Lynch

• United States
• Financial Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Associate

  • 1998 - 2000

  Mergers & Acquisitions Group



Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

• United States
• Law Practice
• 700 & Above Employee

• Summer Associate

  • Jul 1997 - Aug 1997

  San Francisco Bay Area


Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
• United States
• Law Practice
• 700 & Above Employee
• Summer Associate

  • May 1997 - Jul 1997

Wilbraham & Monson Academy
• United States
• Primary and Secondary Education
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Teacher

  • Aug 1993 - Jun 1995