Who We Are
Our People
James W. Pierce
President and CEO
Mr. Pierce is a senior management professional with extensive experience in retail management and corporate banking. Mr. Pierce has worked half of his 27 year career managing two retail operations with revenues in excess of $1 billion and a real estate development company. During his 12 years of retail management he held the positions of Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and President having been responsible for all operational areas and had direct involvement in management of Information Technology, Supply Chain Management, Distribution, and real estate acquisition and development. Mr. Pierce has worked the other half of his career in banking and corporate finance assisting clients in financial management and strategy, structuring bank, institutionally based, and off-shore debt facilities for successful companies as well as companies in financial distress.
The majority of Mr. Pierce's retail career was with Houston based Academy Sports & Outdoors managing a full-line, large store format chain of sporting goods stores. During his tenure as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer the company expanded from 27 stores in two states to 81 stores in 9 states. Total revenues increased from $187 million to $1.2 billion while realizing a 17% compounded annual growth rate in earnings. Mr. Pierce restructured the company's highly leveraged balance sheet and financial agreements to provide the needed flexibility for growth. He created a substantial equity infusion through restructuring of debt and sale-leaseback of on and off balance sheet assets enabled the company to obtain an investment grade rating from the Fitch Rating Agency of BBB. Mr. Pierce directly managed the new store development program accelerating it from an average rate of 3 stores per year to 10 stores per year developing over 65 store locations in 9 states. He was also directly involved with information technology and all supply chain management including import program and the design and development of a 1.2 million square foot state of the art distribution center.
Most of Mr. Pierce's banking career was spent with the Houston office of Chemical Bank of New York where he worked with clients and bankruptcy courts to assist companies going into and emerging from bankruptcy proceedings. He directly worked with investor groups acquiring companies in bankruptcy and negotiated debt restructuring and creditor agreements to emerge from bankruptcy. Mr. Pierce was responsible for restructuring and collection of large portfolio of non-performing assets near or in bankruptcy and worked with government agencies including the FDIC and FSLIC on asset dispositions and debt restructuring for clients. He worked on the analysis and consolidation of the First City Bank assets subsequent to the purchase from the FDIC. Mr. Pierce also managed a lending group and serviced a portfolio directly.
Mr. Pierce attended the University of Texas in Austin where he earned a BBA in Finance with additional concentration in computer science and accounting. He has also completed Executive Education Courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.