James Barrood is among the primary leaders of the east coast’s innovation ecosystem. Over the past 25 years he has helped nurture the region’s entrepreneurial, innovation and technology communities.

James currently leads Innovation+, a curated global community of engaged entrepreneurs and innovators. He also serves as an advisor to startups, growth companies and higher ed institutions as well as Tech Council Ventures and Jumpstart Angels.

James recently concluded five years as CEO of the regional trade association (NJ, NY, PA), the NJ Tech Council (TechUnited), which is among the largest and most respected membership organizations of its kind nationwide with 1,000+ member companies. Prior to this, he led the top-ranked entrepreneurship and innovation center at Fairleigh Dickinson University for over 10 years.

Recognized as a Power 100 List leader and a Top 100 Influencer for the past few years, James frequently speaks at regional and global conferences and serves on several boards. In 2021, he gave a TEDx talk on how innovative immigrants are helping to save millions of people with the remarkably fast development of COVID vaccines and treatments. His latest TEDx talk focuses on startup ecosystems and how they are moving to the cloud.

James is the editor of the book, Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Global Insights from 24 Leaders and co-author of Lessons from the Great Recession. He has written thought leadership articles for Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Grit Daily, Star-Ledger, ROI, NJBiz and other publications and has been widely quoted regionally and nationally and interviewed on TV (ABC, MSNBC, NJTV and My9) and online.

He holds an MBA from Texas A&M University and a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.

For more information email James at [email protected].