Jim McCormick (author)

Jim McCormick
Jim McCormick Photograph by Melanie Humphrey
Born	James Maxwell McCormick Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Nationality	American
Other names	Jim
Alma mater	University of Southern California University of California, Irvine
Occupation	Author, Speaker, Coach, Consultant, and Professional Skydiver
Known for	World Record and North Pole Skydiver. Expertise in intelligent risk-taking and innovation.
Website	[www.risk-institute.com]

James Maxwell "Jim" McCormick is an American speaker, author, and professional skydiver who is known for his expertise in intelligent risk-taking and innovation. He is founder of The Research Institute for Risk Intelligence, holds ten skydiving world records,^[1] and was a member of an international expedition that skydived to the North Pole.

In his professional life, he earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Viterbi School, and an MBA in finance and marketing from the Merage School of Business. He served three years in the Reagan Administration in Washington, DC before returning to the private sector where, among other engagements, he served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the large design firm Anshen+Allen Architects, before becoming a full-time speaker, author, coach, and consultant.

Education

McCormick attended elementary, intermediate and high schools in Tustin, California where he assumed numerous student leadership positions including student representative to the Board of Education. He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering with an emphasis in construction management from the Viterbi School at the University of Southern California. During his junior year, he studied at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria.

Eight years after earning his undergraduate degree, McCormick earned an MBA in finance and marketing from the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He was keynote speaker at the school's commencement activities.^[2]

Career

After founding a small, Los Angeles-based trucking company, McCormick moved into real estate finance in Newport Beach, California. He served three years in the Reagan Administration in Washington, DC and then returned to the private sector in southern California. He served as Vice President, Construction and Development for the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic and the University of California, Irvine and was responsible for funding and building the facility. He then returned to real estate finance with Westmont Investment Company as vice president and project partner. He was then recruited to serve as Chief Operating Officer by Anshen+Allen Architects, the fifth largest architectural firm in the United States. This was the last position he held before becoming a full-time speaker, author, coach, and consultant.^[3]

Government Service

McCormick served in the U.S. Department of Energy during Ronald Reagan's first term. From 1981 to 1984, the positions he held included:

• Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Congressional, Intergovernmental and Public Affairs, Robert Odle
• Aide to Secretary James B. Edwards
• Staff Assistant to Secretary Donald P. Hodel
• Special Assistant to the General Counsel (the first non-attorney in the department's history to hold this position)

McCormick was awarded the Department of Energy Exceptional Service Medal by Secretary Hodel.

Skydiving

McCormick started skydiving on June 25, 1988 in Perris, California. As of June 2016, he has logged more than 4,300 skydives, translating to about five days of freefall. Included in this are jumps from 31,000 feet - the highest altitude civilian skydives. He has jumped from a plane in flight as many as forty-five times in a single day and was a tandem skydiving instructor for five years.

McCormick is a Professional Exhibition Skydiver and has jumped into numerous public events, including the inaugural Opening Day at AT&T Park (then named Pacific Bell Park)^[4] in San Francisco when he delivered soil gathered from every major league baseball field to the new stadium. Other venues and events he's jumped into include Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Triathlon World Championships in Cleveland, Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver, and the NASCAR California 500 at the California Speedway.

On April 18, 1995 McCormick landed a parachute at the North Pole, after exiting an Ilyushin Il-76 jet aircraft flown from Khatanga, Siiberia.

On July 26, 1998, McCormick was a member of a team that set a world skydiving record above Skydive Chicago, in Ottawa, Illinois. The team built a formation of 246 skydivers that we held for 7.25 seconds.^[5][6] His second skydiving world record was earned on December 12, 2002 as a member of the Arizona Airspeed Skydive Arizona World Record team that build a formation of 300 skydivers.^[7]

On April 18, 2004, McCormick was a member of the Z-Team when it set a world record above Zephyrhills, Florida for the largest skydive consisting of two different formations. That record was 121. He was also a member of the American delegation to World Team 2006,^[8] the largest multi-national sports team ever assembled to pursue a common goal. On February 8, 2006, World Team skydivers representing thirty-five countries successfully established the current world record by creating the largest skydiving formation ever built in the skies above Udon Thani, Thailand. The record^[9][10] was set when 400 World Team skydiving, exiting five C-130 Hercules military transports flying at 25,000 feet, linked together into a precisely designed formation in the colors and patterns of the Thai flag that existed for only 4.25 seconds.

In March 2007, Z-Team reconvened in Zephyrhills, Florida in an attempt to break their own world record established three years before. On March 31, they succeeded when 139 skydivers built two different formations on one jump.^[11]

With a number of other notable skydivers, in 2008 McCormick was on a skydiving team that was featured in an award-winning television commercial for Honda Motors UK, titled "difficult is worth doing",^[12] in which the team formed three difficult and intricate formations.

On August 28, 2011 McCormick led a team of 69 skydivers that set a Colorado state record over Longmont for the largest formation ever done.^{[13][14][15][16]} In the culmination of a three-year effort, the team created a snowflake formation. The previous Colorado record, with 56 skydivers, had been set in 2002.

On July 22 and 24, 2015 McCormick was one of the leaders of the Skydiving Hall of Fame Eagles that made history by doing the first large formation skydivesover the Experimental Aviation Association's AirVenture 2015 airshow. The team consisted of 108 skydivers plus four freefall videographers from 15 countries.^{[17][18][19][20]} AirVenure is considered "the world's largest and most significant annual aviation events." ^[21]

McCormick earned his ninth lifetime world record September 29, 2015 as a member of an international team jumping in Perris, California.^{[22][23][24][25]} The team of 202 skydivers completed a jump consisting of two formations. The jump met the criteria of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for an aviation world record.

Speaking, Writing, Coaching, and Consulting

After returning from the international skydiving expedition to the North Pole in 1995, McCormick drew on that experience to become a professional speaker. Over time, his activities have expanded to include organizational consulting; executive and performance coaching; and writing books and articles. His book, The Power of Risk - How Intelligent Choices Will Make You More Successful was a 2009 finalist in the career category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.^[26] The First Time Manager was a finalist for the Management Book of the Year awards ^[27] from the Chartered Management Institute.^[28]

He speaks regularly to corporate, association, and public sector audiences. His corporate speaking clients include AFLAC, Accenture, Bank of America, CDW, FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, PepsiCo, Rutgers University, The Clorox Company, Siemens Unilever, Verizon and Wells Fargo.

Published works

• McCormick, Jim; Loren B. Belker; Gary S. Topchik (January 3, 2012). The First-Time Manager (6th ed.). AMACOM. ISBN 978-0814417836. 
• McCormick, Jim; Maryann Karinch (July 9, 2009). Business Lessons from the Edge - Learn How Extreme Athletes Use Intelligent Risk Taking to Succeed in Business^[29] (1st ed.). McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-162698-0.  ref stripmarker in |title= at position 111 (help)
• McCormick, Jim (September 19, 2008). The Power of Risk - How Intelligent Choices Will Make You More Successful (1st ed.). Maxwell Press. ISBN 0-9728520-0-X. 
• Borschel, Don; Gary Copeland, Doug Hanson, Mike Hourigan, Jim Jacobus, Jack Jobe, Jim McCormick, Colleen Stanley, Vilis Ozols, Vickie Sullivan, Jeff Staads, Ed Tate (January 2004). Motivational Selling - Advice on Selling Effectively, Staying Motivated and Being a Peak Sales Producer (1st ed.). Ozoles Business Group. ISBN 0-9679329-1-2.  Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
• McCormick, Jim (July 20, 2009). 365 Daily Doses of Courage: Inspiration to Help You Take Leaps in Your Life (2nd ed.). Maxwell Press. ISBN 978-0-9728520-8-1. 

Notes

External links

• Information about Anshen+Allen Architects
• Qualifications and Procedures for Professional Exhibition Skydiver Rating
• Experimental Aviation Association
• AirVenture
• Skydiving Hall of Fame
• Fédération Aéronautique Internationale