> Jim Murray

October 17, 2:30 p.m.
Room 110
Reception to follow in the Morse Commons

"Tips from a Lawyer-Executive -Entrepreneur: How To Be Successful and Like Yourself Anyway."

Jim Murray is the founder and Managing Director of Pondera Capital Management. Its primary activity is developing one of the largest and cleanest natural gas-fired power plants in the world. The plant is located near Houston, Texas.

Mr. Murray earned a degree in Mathematical Sciences and Economics at Rice University in Houston and a JD from the University of Texas at Austin.

After beginning his professional career as a securities lawyer for a Fortune 500 company, Mr. Murray joined a start-up subsidiary when it had no revenue and helped grow the company to over $2 billion in assets. Ultimately, he served as the CFO of this firm.

Mr. Murray subsequently joined a small power-plant developer when it had no revenue, and helped create over $100 million in shareholder value at this company.

Later, Mr. Murray moved to TXU Energy Trading, the largest US energy trader after Enron's bankruptcy, as Senior Vice President of Capital Management. When he was fired from this position, he sued TXU in one of the first cases filed under the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Mr. Murray is unable to comment on the details of his firing, but newspaper accounts indicate that he was raising allegations of securities fraud and that a major TXU subsidiary entered into a multi-billion dollar bankruptcy shortly after his departure.

Jim Murray has also been involved with unsuccessful startups relating to geothermal energy and reverse mortgages, and gained additional valuable experience from each of these entrepreneurial ventures.

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