DANVILLE -- After moving around most of his life, James D. Wilson feels like he finally has found a home. Now, the 60-year-old former senior attorney for the Army wants to make his new hometown of Danville even better.
Wilson has been appointed as the first executive director of the Danville Business Alliance with an annual base salary of $40,000. He was hired by a unanimous vote of the board after being one of six finalists interviewed for the position.
The state-funded Main Street Program will make up to $265,000 available over the next four years to help with the revitalization of the downtown. The alliance is working to obtain money from other funding programs, which could raise the available amount to nearly $1 million.
In addition, alliance members have pledged nearly $120,000 to the revitalization effort over a five-year period.
Wilson will helm that effort after assuming his duties July 1, a date that coincides with the alliance receiving Main Street Program funding from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
"Being an attorney, I have had a good bit of experience in executive management with other people and pushing forward projects at large institutions. I will bring those skills to this position and hopefully for the benefit of the community," Wilson said.
Alliance President Jeffrey Tiesi said: "Mr. Wilson has extensive professional experience, most recently as a senior member of the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General Corps. The combination of his seasoning, career experience and enthusiasm for advancing the greater good of the local area will be definite assets as we move the Main Street Program and all of Danville forward."
Wilson and his wife, Gerda Breitwieser, moved here two years ago after she was recruited as a senior scientist for the Weis Center for Research.
He brought with him a laundry list of accomplishments.
Wilson was associated with the Judge Advocate General Corps from 1971 to 2003.
A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the Paul M. Herbert Law Center at Louisiana State University, he earned a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Louisiana Tech University in 1971.
He is a member of the Pennsylvania, New York, Louisiana and American bar associations and can practice in the courts of those states as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wilson has more than 30 years of professional experience in institutional risk and liability, having been successful in numerous high-profile cases. He created a consulting firm dedicated to providing risk analysis and control to health care providers and organizations, improving patient safety and helping to resolve provider-patient disputes. As a senior attorney for the Army Tort Claims Division, Wilson represented the Army throughout the United States in more then 2,000 federal tort claims involving catastrophic injuries, permanent disabilities and death. He also led the tort claims division staff in negotiating settlements and negotiated several hundred complex structured settlements.
For four years, Wilson served as deputy chief of the division, where he oversaw the national operation of the tort claims program, was consultant to several Army hospitals on risk management trends and issues and served as a speaker and instructor at numerous continuing legal education conferences and seminars.
Now he faces a new challenge, but one he's ready for.
"I am pleased to accept the challenge of being the Danville Business Alliance's first executive director," Wilson said. "I am excited about the prospect of a new professional challenge that will enable me to work with people of different backgrounds to serve a common purpose. Given its history as a river and mill town, its architecture, its traditions and the enthusiasm of its people, I believe Danville is on the verge of exciting times, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to be a part of that," he said.
n E-mail comments to kblackledge@thedanvillenews.com.
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