Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas is the President of the Centre for Creative Change – a consulting firm that has extensive experience in assisting organizations in tackling and resolving their most difficult problems.  His expertise is in the areas of facilitation, including conflict resolution and negotiations.  He worked with dozens of clients on the public, non-profit, and cooperative financial sectors during the fifteen years he has operated his consulting firm and has successfully facilitated hundreds of sessions with senior officials in government and the not-for-profit sector. 

Jim knows how to resolve conflicts within or between organizations, including conflicts in unionized environments.  He was a labour lawyer, an Assistant Deputy Minister of Employee Relations (chief negotiator) and Deputy Minister of Labour in the Ontario government.  He is an interest-based negotiator and a skilled mediator and has assisted numerous organizations in successfully resolving disputes and disagreements, including those related to governance. 

Jim has conducted hundreds of Board planning and governance workshop sessions for associations, credit unions, cooperative financial services organizations, federal government departments, voluntary, and private sector clients.  He has an excellent grasp of governance issues and solutions stemming from his experience as Deputy Minister of Management Board in the Ontario Government. His Board sessions are known for their ability to tackle and resolve tough issues, their results orientation and for moving people farther than they expected to go.