Mr. James joined NetNearU as Chairman of the Board in April 1999. His role expanded in October 1999 to include Chief Executive Officer. Mr. James was previously the President, Chief Executive Office and Chairman of the Board of Directors to USLD Communications (USLD). Mr. James joined USLD (then named U.S. Long Distance) in 1988 when its annual revenues were $1.5 million and its market capitalization was about $8 million. In 1991, he became President of USLD and, later, became Chief Executive Officer of it subsidiary, Zero Plus Dialing. After building significant revenues, USLD elected to spin off Zero Plus Dialing as a separate publicly held company, creating Billing Concept in August 1996. After the spin-off, Mr. James became the President, Chief Executive Office, and Chairman of the Board of USLD, which, at that time, had a market capitalization of $70 million. After six consecutive quarters of growth in revenue and earnings per share, USLD was sold to LCI International for approximately $400 million. At the time of the sale, the combined market capitalization of USLD and Billing Concepts was approximately $1.2 billion.

Mr. James served on the Competitive Telecommunications Association (Comptel) board of directors for seven years and on its executive committee for four years. During this time, he was named one of the most influential people in the telecommunications industry. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of various community-based organizations, including Junior Achievement, Santa Rosa Children's Hospital and the Texas Business Hall of Fame. Mr. James holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana Tech University and has also been awarded an honorary membership in Delta Mu Delta National Business Honor Society.