James Adams is the CEO of the Adams Strategy Group which provides strategic planning, direction and advice to the private sector and government agencies. He was the CEO of United Press International and the founder, Chairman and CEO of iDEFENSE, a cyber-intelligence organization with clients in the intelligence community, the government and Fortune 100 companies.

At UPI, James inherited a demoralized and broken organization that was owned by the Saudis and was losing $20m a year. Within 12 months he had created and implemented a new strategic plan, reduced the losses to zero and made the organization viable.

James founded iDEFENSE to bridge the gap between the intelligence community and the private sector in the world of cyber threats. The business was sold to Verisign in 2004 for $40m.

He is the author of 12 bestselling fiction and non-fiction books with an emphasis on warfare and intelligence. His most recent book, The Next World War, a study of information warfare, is published by Simon and Schuster. His other books include The Financing of Terror, Secret Armies, New Spies and two biographies, Sellout, the story of CIA spy Aldrich Ames and Bull’s Eye, the story of Iraqi supergun maker Gerry Bull.

James was trained as a reporter in England where he graduated first in the country. He had a long career at the London Sunday Times. As a reporter, he specialized in national security issues, first as a war correspondent and then as an analyst on strategy, warfare and intelligence.

He had a parallel career as an executive at the Sunday Times which culminated in a position as Managing Editor. He was directly responsible for the secret operation, personally directed by Rupert Murdoch, to construct a new office and printing plant in London that moved the newspaper from hot metal to computer typesetting in a single night. The operation transformed the fortunes of the Sunday Times and News Corporation.

He is a former member of the National Security Agency’s Advisory Board and the founding Chairman of the Technology Advisory Panel of the Signals Intelligence Directorate at NSA. He holds current TS/SCI clearances. At NSA, he was responsible for setting a new strategic direction for the 15,000 person Signals Intelligence Directorate to address the current and future very challenging high technology environment. He was the first recipient of the NSA’s Special Recognition Award for his ”outstanding contributions” to the Agency.

James is President of the Ashland Rowing Club and lives with his wife, Renee, and daughters Ella and Grace, in Ashland, Oregon.