Jim Clarke
CFO II COO II Independent Board Member II Mentor & Advisor
- Role
- Evp-corporate Development at X-Bow Systems
- Location
- Austin, TX, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Jim Clarke
As CFO and COO, I am a strategic advisor and implementer, trusted by peers, boards and capital providers globally. I have guided early stage, high growth, mature and restructuring enterprises. I excel at simplifying complex problems while generously mentoring team members. I believe people matter and culture is critical to any successful enterprise. I have been a board member, and as a financial expert, I welcome opportunities to serve on private or public company boards as an enthusiastic audit committee chairman or member.Underscoring the trust I have developed with financial providers, I have raised (as principal and advisor) over $10 billion of long-term, enterprise and equipment capital in all economic cycles and company growth phases, including $5 billion of equity and debt for a start-up platform (2010), which I helped list on the NYSE (2011).CAPITAL EXPERTISE-Some MilestonesAmerican Airlines-$260mm of tax lease financing (19••••88);United Airlines-$2.0 billion of tax lease financing (19••••90);GE Capital/GPA-$1.7 billion of portfolio financing solutions (19••••98);Merrill Lynch-$3.1 billion of portfolio securitizations/$1.6 billion of structured debt and Air Lease Corporation-$1.3 billion (144A) & $900mm (IPO) equity/$2.8+billion of debt (20••••12).RESTRUCTURING EXPERTISEMatlinPatterson- I provided strategic advice and arranged comprehensive asset solutions for Brazilian portfolio companies, including secondary aircraft purchases/conversions and a new aircraft order (20••••08);Aloha Airlines- As CFO, I led the company\'s internal and external reorganization efforts pre- and during Chapter 11, raising $65 million DIP financing from Cerberus and Goldman Sachs, and repaying US government\'s post-September 11 loan at par plus accrued interest (20••••05); andAmerica West Airlines- I served as an outside board member (1993). MANAGEMENT MILESTONESAir Lease Corporation- As CFO, my small team completed Sarbanes-Oxley protocols one year before compliance deadline and implemented a new financial reporting system (NetSuite); GE Capital- As SVP Risk Management, I implemented NBA airline and Laker Skytrain 2; andEastern Airlines- As CFO, I helped implement our reservations system and integration with our secure gateway and merchant processing, negotiated our contract with and oversaw our transition to NetSuite, concluded our first corporate credit facility with Synovus Bank, our principal relationship bank, and selected E&Y to perform a multi-year audit of Eastern\'s (and parent\'s) financial statements.
Experience
Evp-corporate Development
Feb 2026 — Present · Austin, TX, US
Education
Stanford University
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), American Studies
1976 — 1980
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
Doctor of Law (JD)
University of Chicago
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Finance, General
1985 — 1987
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