Jim Ranton
Founder & Principal
James D. Ranton is the Founder and Principal of Phenix Advisors, LLC – a People Performance Strategy consultancy for SMBs, PE-backed companies, Start-ups and Senior Professionals seeking leadership skills coaching.
A results-driven advisor, Jim has achieved notable success in partnering with stakeholders to build high-performance teams; transform corporate cultures into inclusive communities and create talent strategies that develop profitability-focused contributors.
Jim’s sphere of expertise includes organization performance planning, talent management, compensation design, labor relations strategy and acquisition integration.
Prior to forming Phenix Advisors, Jim held executive leadership positions at Carrier Corporation, Citigroup, Citizens Utilities, Guardian Life Insurance, New York Racing Association, PepsiCo, Surescripts and United Technologies.
Jim joined New York Racing Association (NYRA) in 2015 as SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. During his tenure with NYRA, Jim made significant improvements in labor relations producing cost savings of more than $1M annually.
At Surescripts, Jim was the SVP and Chief People Officer for this leader in healthcare information exchange. He defined the strategy and implemented the processes to aggressively grow the workforce organically by nearly 300%. Transaction volume grew by more than 1500% over four years.
As the SVP of Human Resources for the Guardian Life Insurance Company, Jim designed several executive programs – talent assessment, professional development and succession planning – that achieved a marked improvement in leadership’s performance. Pre-tax operating income subsequently grew 14% to $1B in the next two years.
As Senior Human Resources Officer at Citigroup, Jim directed the HR strategy and related activities that enabled the smooth and timely acquisition of the California Federal Bank and 100% retention of Cal Fed’s targeted employees.
Jim earned an MBA from the International Management Center at ESC Rouen in France, an MS from the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University and a BS, Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Jim Ranton and his wife, Barbara reside in Stamford, Connecticut. A health and fitness enthusiast, Jim enjoys playing a challenging game of bridge with Barbara and friends.