Michael James

Old Colony YMCA

Mr. Michael James has been a solid leader in the field of Diversity and Inclusion for over 10 years.

He is currently the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for the Old Colony YMCA. Old Colony is a $70 million dollar, 2000 employee social service organization focused on providing over 140,000 youth and families with services ranging from Family Stabilization, Youth Development, Healthy Living and Mental Health Counseling throughout Massachusetts.

Michael was formerly the Director of Human Resources for the YMCA of Greater Boston where he was responsible for directing the development and implementation of association wide policies and programs for 2500 employees focused on performance management, leadership development, employee relations, training, talent acquisition, compensation and diversity & inclusion in collaboration with the Executive Management Team.

Prior roles for Michael include serving as the Director of Inclusion, Mobility and Corporate Diversity at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and as the principal of his own management consulting firm specializing in diversity, community relations and organizational change. Michael’s prior roles include Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Community Relations at the Boston Architectural College (BAC); Chief of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at MBCR; leading human resources for a division of BAE Systems; and working in the financial industry for several years at BankBoston. James’ volunteer positions includes serving as a strategic advisor and facilitator for The Northeast Human Resources Association and City-Wide Dialogues on Ethnic & Racial Diversity. He organizes an annual Bike Ride for Peace event, and serves as an academic mentor for the Boston Partners in Education, Big Cheese Reads public middle school literacy campaign.

Michael holds an MBA from Suffolk University and a BA in psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is an alumnus of The Partnership Inc., the Emerging Leaders Program at The Center of Collaborative Leadership at UMass Boston, the Lead Boston Program at the Boston Center for Community Justice and the Y of the USA Multicultural Executive Development Institute (MEDI). Michael James grew up in Roxbury and he is the proud husband of his wife Charlotte and father to their three wonderful children.