Biography: James S. Henry

[James Henry]

James S. Henry is Managing Director of the Sag Harbor Group (SHG Inc.), a technology-focused private equity venture and consulting firm. SHG’s clients have included ABB, Allen & Co., AT&T, AT Kearney, Calvert Fund, Cemex, ChinaTrust, the Scotland Yard/FBI Task Force on Caribbean Havens, GM, HP, IBM/Lotus, Intel, Inter-wise, Lucent, Merrill Lynch, South Africa Telecom, Rockefeller Foundation, Swedish Power Board, TransAlta, UBS Warburg, Volvo, and Prof. Michael Porter’s Monitor Company.

In the corporate world, Mr. Henry has worked as an Anti-Trust Attorney, Shearman & Sterling (NY); Management Consultant and Firm Economist, McKinsey & Co. (NY); Manager, Business Development, Chairman's Office (Welch), GE (Fairfield); and VP Strategy, IBM/Lotus Development Corporation (Cambridge).

He has been a Founder and Partner in IVP, a private equity firm based in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Board Member, PeopLink/Catgen.com, a software company focused on e-commerce for developing countries; Board Member, IdentaSearch, a biotech startup; Board Member, Flooz.Com; senior advisor to Ashoka, the “reverse Peace Corps;” Board Member, Long Island University’s Friends World Program; Project Director, Transnational Corruption, The New School’s World Policy Institute; Cooperating At-torney, New York Civil Liberties Union; Co-Chair, Tax Justice Network – US.

Mr. Henry’s articles on “financial investigations” have appeared in many leading publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, Conference Board, The Washington Post, US News, Manhattan Inc., Harpers, The Washington Monthly, Fortune, Business Week, The Nation, Newsweek, Time, The Tax Lawyer, Jornal do Brasil, The Manila Chronicle, La Nacion, El Fi-nanciero, and Slate.

Mr. Henry’s books include, with Paul Starr and Ray Bonner, The Discarded Army – A Study of the Veterans Administration and Vietnam Veterans. (NY: Charterhouse, 1976); Banqueros y Lavadolares. (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1996); The Internet’s Im-pact on Financial Services. (NY: AT Kearney, 1999); The Blood Bankers (NY: Avalon/ Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003); and Pirate Bankers. (NY: Avalon, 2007 forthcom-ing). He has also been a contributor to several books and anthologies, including, with Prof. Richard Caves, The Economics of Competition (Boston: Prentice Hall,1988); Steve Hiatt, ed., A Game As Old as Empire. (SF: Barrett-Koehler, March 2007 forthcoming.), Chapter Five: “The Mythology of Debt Relief.” He is also the founder and Editor of SubmergingMarkets™, a web blog devoted to a critical analysis of political and economic development issues, and first-hand investigations.

Mr. Henry’s unique, first-person approach to investigative economics, and his exper-tise in “offshore banking,” have taken him to more than 50 developing countries. His investigations produced documentary evidence that was instrumental in the 1992 conviction of Panama’s Manuel Noriega. He was hired by the Government of Para-guay to help that country recover the assets stolen by General Stroessner He also succeeded in identifying the role of Philippines Central Bank loans, later transferred directly to offshore accounts, in enriching Marcos and his cronies; and in breaking up a major Brazilian cocaine smuggling ring that was involved in bribing the family of the President of Brazil, and led to a ’93 Parliamentary Commission (CPI) on drug trafficking. Mr. Henry has testified several times before the US Senate on economic policy issues, and is a frequent speaker at forums on international development. He has also been an “investigative producer” on several documentary film projects involving developing countries, including “Land Famine in Honduras” (1984),“Noriega” (ABC News, 1991); and “UnBoliviable” (2007), a documentary about Evo Morales by Donald Ranvaud, producer of “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener.”

Mr. Henry is an honors graduate of Harvard College (Magna, Social Studies ’72; De-tur Prize; Phi Beta Kappa, National Merit Scholar, Chairman, Institute of Politics, Student Advisory Committee); Harvard Law School (J.D., Honors, 1976); Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (M.S. A.B.D., Economics, 1978; ABD – disser-tation ’05); Danforth Fellow; “Nader Raider;” and a member of the New York Bar ’78. He has a working knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French. He is an “Adirondack 46R,” and an avid tennis player, biker, sailor, and photographer. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he and his family make their homes in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.

For more information, contact James S. Henry at jhenry@sagharbor.com. SHG, Inc.’s website is http://www.sagharbor.com. SubmergingMarkets™ is at http://www.submergingmarkets.com