James is an Advisory Board Member and previous Director of Harwell Capital, and an advisor to the UK government for cyber-security, having retired from the British Army in 2005 as a Major-General, after commanding Theatre Troops, the largest and most complex division in the Army, with 13 Brigades and 34,000 men under his command.

James served in many operational theatres including the Oman, Northern Ireland, the Balkans and Iraq during his 31-year career in the British Army. He was the Commanding Officer of 14 Signal Regiment (Electronic Warfare) during the First Gulf War in 1991. Subsequently and on promotion to Brigadier, he commanded 1 Signal Brigade, which was deployed in support of the ACE Rapid Reaction Corps in Sarajevo in Bosnia Herzegovena throughout the whole of 1996.

After Bosnia, James was appointed as the Commander Communications and Information Systems and principal Information Services Staff Officer (ACOS G6) in Headquarters Land Command. James was responsible for purchasing Information and Communication Services, and visited and evaluated many emerging technology companies, whereby his budget was substantial given the continuing and emerging deployments in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

On retirement James helped to raise capital for the Lyle Anderson Company for 4 years; in a sense this was a return to family roots as the Shaw Trust held interests in Barings Bank, Save and Prosper Units Trust and Martins Merchant Bank. James runs his own advisory business, assisting companies with raising funding across a wide range of sectors, with a particular interest in technology.