JIM PAPINEAU

Jim Papineau has over 35 years of business management and executive leadership experience having successful careers as a Navy SEAL officer, corporate CEO, and board member on multiple veteran support non-profit organizations.  

Jim’s love of the outdoors started as a child growing up in Northern Michigan where he began exploring the undersea world of the Great Lakes diving on wrecks and hiking remote areas of Michigan’s upper peninsula.  This appreciation for the outdoors and his desire to be challenged in extreme environments lead Jim to join the U.S. Navy where he began his 22-year career as a SEAL in 1978.  During this period he had the unique opportunity to expand his outdoor and leadership skills serving as a tactical instructor for mountaineering, winter and jungle survival, offshore high speed boat driving and navigation, among other skills unique to tactical SEAL operations.  Having instructed and successfully lead teams around the world, Jim was selected to attend the Naval Postgraduate School where he received a Masters degree in National Security Affairs.

Leveraging his management, team building, and leadership experiences from his time in the military, Jim began a successful career in the corporate world where he was instrumental in helping grow a 70-person company that would sell six years later with 550 employees.  His experience as CEO during the final years before the sale continued to expand Jim’s understanding and application of successful leadership principals.   Specifically, the necessity of improving corporate communications when rapidly scaling a company and building teams, maintaining a positive corporate culture in a rapidly growing work force, and the need for programs that were both innovative and effective to help identify and train emerging leaders within the company.  These same leadership skills have direct application and correlation to rewarding and safe life experiences in the great outdoors.

Jim has operationally lead several mergers and acquisitions to include the successful integration of two family support Naval Special Warfare organizations creating the Navy SEAL Foundation.  He continues to be actively involved in military support organizations and currently serves as a director on the board of Spirit of America.