Leadership
Jim McVaney
With more than 25 years of experience, Jim has served as an effective strategist and successful advocate for leading trade associations and corporations as both a consultant and as an executive. Most recently, he led Bayer AG’s plant biotechnology and chemicals public affairs and policy portfolio, where he managed all aspects of relevant engagements with policymakers, key stakeholders and external partners. Additionally, Jim spearheaded the company’s government relations campaign to gain regulatory approval for its $63 billion acquisition of the Monsanto Corporation, which closed in 2018 after more than two years of regulatory scrutiny in more than 35 countries. The advocacy effort encompassed multi-faceted strategies to build public and political support at the national, state and community levels as part of a comprehensive approach to winning approvals from the US Department of Justice and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS).
Prior to Bayer AG, his experience reached across energy (both conventional and alternative), defense and aerospace, transportation and infrastructure, chemicals and manufacturing. This includes serving as an in-house lobbyist for the Air Transport Association of America (now Airlines for America), the American Chemistry Council and the Food Marketing Institute. For 7 years, Jim served as Vice President, Government Relations and Aerospace Business development led the government affairs team for Rentech Inc, an energy, fuels and chemicals firm.
Over the course of his career, he was instrumental in the development of key sections of the electric utilities title of the Energy Policy Act, fuels and other sections of the Energy Independence and Security Act, as well as laws touching agriculture, tax, technology, trade, homeland security and defense.
Jim has demonstrated his value as a leader of disparate interests within associations and coalitions, as well as a serving as a recognized voice for clients and industries alike before governmental bodies at all levels. In doing so, he has both served on executive committees of trade associations and led issue-based industry coalitions.
As the world of public policy and public affairs have evolved, Jim has proven to be an innovative strategist in building integrated and multifaceted issue campaigns inclusive of government relations, earned and social media, grassroots/grasstops and third-party alliances and coalitions. Often his role has been that of “campaign manager” in charge of developing coalitions or issue-based engagements, including efficiently managing in-house teams and consultants to advance the understanding of complex technical and policy concepts in ways targeted audiences can connect with and then leveraging their support among key decision makers, stakeholders and the media.
From an investment and business development perspective, Jim also has served as a primary catalyst for numerous bilateral and multilateral commercial agreements within the energy sector that has secured private and public sector project and R&D financing.
Jim holds a Masters in International Business Administration from Georgetown University and a Bachelors of Arts in Politics from the University of Georgia. He serves on the Board of Visitors for the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia and lives with his wife and son in Arlington, VA.