Founder & CEO of J. Keenan & Associates, Inc.
Born in the Bronx and raised in Eastchester, New York, Jim was granted early acceptance to the Honors Program at the University of Notre Dame. He graduated with a BA in Political Science. Studying under Dr. Gerhart Niemeyer. Jim authored two A+ senior research papers, “Leninism” and “The Idea of Reform: Its Impact on Christian Thought & Action” while on full U.S. Navy Scholarship. At graduation he was commissioned as a U.S. Navy Supply Corps officer and served three assignments in Vietnam earning multiple combat service commendations from 1964 to 1968. At age 26, Jim began his business career as a partner in Jordan-Keenan Enterprises, developing commercial real estate in San Diego before moving to Washington, D.C. There he first served with a top-secret clearance advising the Office of the Secretary of Defense on Vietnam military and political strategy. In the mid-1970’s, Jim turned his attention toward Mexico, a country with which he has stayed connected for more than 40 years. As founder and president of the Washington International Institute, Jim worked closely in Mexico City with the Director General of Fomento Cultural Banamex, A.C., the cultural arm of Mexico’s second largest banking group, traveling regularly to Hollywood to initiate and develop new family-oriented television entertainment. His work resulted in the creation of the two-hour prime-time feature, Stranger at Jefferson High funded by and licensed to NBC-TV. Jim directed media and community outreach efforts for the Mexico Today Symposium, the largest presentation of Mexico – its culture, politics, and economy – organized in the United States with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Symposium, sponsored by The Smithsonian Institution, the Embassy of Mexico and Meridian House International, was inaugurated by Octavio Paz, Nobel Prize for Literature winner, in a gala affair at the Organization of American States Hall of the Americas. More than 80 U.S. and Mexico cultural institutions participated in the Mexico Today Symposium holding symposia in 9 major U.S. cities over 4 months. Jim’s work earned him a position as a PR consultant for the launching of R&D Mexico, Mexico’s first magazine for the international scientific community published by the Office of Science & Technology, Embassy of Mexico. In Washington, D.C. Jim acted as the U.S. representative for Ecanal, S.A., a monthly economic advisory service for Fortune 500 corporations, Banco de Mexico and Mexican Government Ministries. Ecanal’s author was Oxford-educated Dr. Redvers Opie , widely recognized as the world’s foremost expert on the Mexican economy and an early promoter of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. Jim presented to The White House and to The Heritage Foundation Dr. Opie’s Report, a close inside analysis of the 1982 collapse of the Mexican economy, which Reagan Administration’s former National Security Advisor, Richard V. Allen , characterized as “heroic” and Dr. Opie proudly called “the summation of my life’s work”. In 1981, Jim served the Reagan White House on policy matters relating to Mexico on the recommendation of former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, The Honorable Joseph John Jova . Jim drafted a key section of President Reagan’s first major policy speech on Mexico saying that the goal of U.S. policy is “to foster a stable, friendly, politically free, economically progressive Mexico south of our common 2,000-mile border”. In 1983, choosing to stay in the private sector, Jim moved to Houston, Texas to pursue professional opportunities in Texas, Mexico and Central America, pursuing cross-border commerce and fundraising activities for corporations and educational institutions in all three countries. During this time, Jim helped a mid-size Mexican manufacturer to participate in a national trade show in Chicago. He also pursued fundraising for Instituto para la Alta Direccion de Empresas (IPADE) in Mexico City, a prestigious graduate school of Business Administration with ties to Harvard Business School, as well as for Ciudad de los Ninos , a large school for children from low-income families in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2002 Jim recommended to then-President George W. Bush’s negotiating team that the U.S. should help Mexico address its 8-million-unit housing shortage, and the U.S. added $300 million for home building as part of the Bi-Lateral U.S.-Mexico Partnership for Prosperity , launched during President Bush’s meeting with President Vicente Fox in Mexico.Jim presently lives in San Antonio having moved there in 2010. He continues to develop entrepreneurial and educational projects of international dimension, including helping his close friend of some 40 years, Dr. Félix D. Almaráz, Jr., to launch the Almaráz Research Institute of Borderlands History & Culture by serving on its Advisory Council. Jim enjoys assisting with The Grade, a Leadership Program for College-bound High School Young Men in Grades 9 to 12 at Montevista Study Center. He likes golf, hiking, kayaking, international travel and listening to a wide variety of music from opera to Louis Armstrong to Willie Nelson.