Jim Mathews’ career in IT has spanned positions ranging from programming in machine language to developing IT Strategies for a Fortune 100 corporation, and many positions in between.  As a programmer in the seventies, he worked on billing systems, insurance systems, transportation systems, and computerized typesetting systems (back when that was a new technology).  Jim moved into IT management when he began his 25 year career with American Express.  As his career progressed, he began spending more time working with emerging technologies, doing fraud detection projects that employed Artificial Intelligence and participating on IBM Customer Advisory Boards for some of their AI products.  Eventually Jim became Director of Advanced Technology for the Travelers Cheque business, where he managed a team of systems professionals that tracked emerging technologies, evaluated their suitability for introduction into the business environment, and then implemented or recommended projects.  Attempting to maximize return on investment for IT Spending, he learned to look at new technology products with a jaundiced eye.  Curiosity about why some technologies and technology products succeed while others fail led Jim to earn a Master’s degree in Studies of the Future from the University of Houston-Clear Lake that he used to add dimension to the IT Strategies and enterprise architectures he was developing.  The scope of these strategies and architectures ranged from a single line of business to enterprise-wide in a global context.  He also participated on a company-wide team to identify large impact emerging information technologies and develop strategies to leverage them for optimal business benefit.

Taking advantage of a golden parachute, Jim took an early retirement and used his time to further develop a theory of how emerging technologies move through the technology life-cycle, combining existing theories with original concepts.  Jim presented his work to World Future Society Conferences in 2006 and 2007 under the title “Understanding the Emerging Technologies Life Cycle”.  He is a Founding Member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and is still active in the association.  Jim has developed a deep understanding of how information technologies and technologies in general develop and interact, and how to strategically plan for and take advantage of this development.  Since leaving American Express, he has worked as an IT consultant in Architecture and Strategy and in areas as diverse as organizational development and ITIL process design.  Jim and his wife have two adult children and reside in Salt Lake City, Utah, but both love to travel and are always planning their next trip.  Jim’s hobbies include reading, mixology, hiking in the mountains, and reading Proust in French