James Morris

James earned his B.S. in industrial engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, where he concentrated in operations and technology management. He began his career in operations consulting, where he learned to see any organization as a system that can be measured, understood, and improved.

He was drawn to Bennet by a challenge he found irresistible: how to deliver bespoke, high-stakes intelligence work with the reliability of an industrial process, without ever sacrificing the craft that makes it valuable. Reconciling those two demands has been the throughline of his career.

Colleagues describe him as calm, relentless, and unusually good at making complicated things run smoothly.

Before joining Bennet, James served as Senior Vice President of Operations at Vantshaw Group, a professional-services firm, where he led delivery, resourcing, and quality across a large and growing practice. He was known for building operating systems that scaled gracefully under pressure and for a management style that combined high standards with genuine respect for the people doing the work.

Earlier he was Director of Operations at Halloway Analytics, a data and research company, where he built the delivery infrastructure that allowed the firm to take on larger and more complex engagements. He began in the operations practice of a global consultancy, advising clients across industries on how to run better.

Across every role, his teams shipped complex work reliably — the unglamorous achievement that clients notice only when it is absent.

As COO, James owns how the firm delivers. He leads engagement operations, resourcing, workflow, and the quality systems that ensure every deliverable meets the firm's standard before it reaches a client. He is the executive who makes the firm's promises operationally true.

He works in close partnership with Olivia to translate her analytic methods into repeatable delivery processes, and with Becky to align operational planning with financial discipline. He built the firm's operating cadence so that scale never comes at the cost of the care each engagement requires.

Internally, he is the person who ensures that a brilliant strategy and a brilliant model actually arrive, complete and on time, in the client's hands.

James believes that excellence is a system, not a heroic act — that the goal is to make great work the reliable output of a well-designed process rather than the occasional product of individual effort.

He is a determined advocate for the people who deliver the work, arguing that sustainable operations and humane management are the same thing viewed from two angles.