James Harrison Email and Phone Number

“What is it you do?”Until recently, this has been my least favourite dinner party question and a long standing joke amongst friends. Why? Well, I’ve been lucky enough to base my career on exploration, trying a bit of everything, following my interests and learning along the way. My usual catch all answer of “I work in the automotive industry” was mostly true, but probably underselling myself...On leaving school and with a background in motorsport, I established myself as a performance driving specialist, working with some of the top automotive brands and mentoring drivers in international competition. This allowed me to continue pursuing my childhood dream of competing at Le Mans, whilst earning a living in the sport I loved. Whilst I didn’t make it to Le Mans (settling for a 25 hour race at Spa Francorchamps in a VW Beetle instead), my work prepared me for working in fast paced environments, with exposure to remote working, finance, performance coaching and event management. A brief interlude setting up a clothing company, gave me insight into building an online brand with e-commerce presence, working on graphic and web design and understanding marketing strategy.Moving away from motorsport and into operations management at Inneva Group, I managed the production of low volume automotive interiors and safety systems for child seats. In my first full time role, I applied my motorsport gained attention to detail and developed an understanding of lean methodology and production techniques. As Inneva grew, I was best placed to manage a new business acquisition, working in the commercial vehicles conversion and accessories market. My focus was to consolidate the business within Inneva Group, whilst developing both B2B and B2C brands, product and service offerings. As a general manager, I was able to pull together my broad experience with the benefit of having learned most of my skills first hand. Now, within JLR, I am able to apply my strategic experience and agile mindset to define future product strategy within an evolving and increasingly competitive industry.