im Fielding has spent more than 35 years leading inside some of the most recognizable consumer brands in the world. He served as President of Disney Stores Worldwide, CEO of Claire's Stores, Head of Consumer Products at DreamWorks and Fox, and SVP at Gap, and held earlier leadership roles at Lands' End and J. Peterman. At Disney, he led the reinvention of the Disney Store. That work proved to him that a bold creative bet and a disciplined business case can sit at the same table. Those decades taught him, often the hard way, that the leaders who get the best from people work with them, not on them. That conviction became his central idea: radical kindness is a leadership operating system, not a personality trait. Its opposite is not cruelty. It is convenient kindness, the kind that shows up when it costs nothing and disappears when it counts. Jim is an out LGBTQ+ leader who built his career in rooms where being fully visible carried a price. He speaks directly about that cost and about what organizations lose when talented people spend their energy managing how they are seen instead of doing their best work. For Jim, belonging is a performance issue as much as a values issue, and he makes that case to executives in terms they can act on. He is the author of the USA Today bestseller All Pride, No Ego (Wiley) and the forthcoming Ask for An Answer: The Twelve-Minute System for Stronger Teams, Better Decisions, and a Kinder World (Wiley, March 30, 2027). He coaches CEOs, CHROs, and CMOs through The ExCo Group and advises consumer brands including the LA Clippers, Uncle Nearest, and Peanuts Worldwide. He serves on the boards of Xcel Brands, where he sits on the Compensation Committee, and A Frame Brands. He hosts the Ask for An Answer podcast, founded the League of Radical Kindness, and is a TEDxGainesville speaker. His keynotes include Radical Kindness Is a Strategy, Not a Sentiment; Ask, Don't Tell; Power Without Permission; The Cost of Dimming Your Light; and Exclusive, Authentic, Original, the story behind the Disney Store reinvention. Jim received the 2025 Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award. He served nine years on the Indiana University Foundation Board, where he chaired the Queer Philanthropy Circle, and sits on the 2026–2027 Steering Committee of the Atlanta LGBTQ+ Community Center Initiative. He holds an Executive Coaching diploma from Emory University's Goizueta Business School and lives in Atlanta.