Experience
Jim is an international corporate governance, compliance and management consultant with experience in strategic planning and transactions. He is an attorney who has held positions at law firms and companies based in Europe and the United States. After serving as Secretary and General Counsel of Schlumberger Limited, he formed Governance and Transactions to assist a diverse group of multinational corporations and private equity firms with a wide range of difficult challenges. In addition to strategic problem solving, he has developed a variety of governance and compliance services that help companies continuously improve the performance of their Boards and compliance programs.
Governance
Jim is Chair Emeritus of the Board of The National Association of Corporate Directors, New York Chapter. He regularly addresses directors and professional conferences as a recognized authority on corporate governance for multinational companies.
Jim served on the Board of Aibel AS, a Norwegian operation and maintenance company affiliated with Vetco Group Limited and operating in Africa, Europe and Latin America. He also served as General Counsel of Vetco during that period. He continued on the Board of Aibel Group Limited, serving as Chair of the Audit, Compliance and Nominating Committees and then as Chairman of the Board.
As Secretary and General Counsel of Schlumberger, Jim was the chief governance officer of the company, working closely with the Chairman and the chairs of the independent Board committees to continuously improve the company’s Board practices and overall governance.
Compliance
Jim led Schlumberger Limited’s redesign of its legal compliance program to address the needs of a very global and decentralized organization with operations in some of the most challenging environments in the world. He continued to oversee that effort as General Counsel, helping maintain the company’s reputation for the highest ethical standards and the most envied “tone at the top” in its industry.
Jim was then hired by private equity firms acquiring the recently prosecuted global oilfield equipment and services business of ABB Ltd. The stringent compliance demands of the US Department of Justice were resolved and the due diligence standards of GE were addressed when the equipment business was sold in 2007.
Jim’s credibility with the Department of Justice was such that he was then approved for a compliance-monitoring role on the Board of Aibel Group Ltd, overseeing the creation of a new compliance function, the development of internal controls and the strengthening of the in-house legal department. He has since advised numerous companies, their Boards and shareholders, and has addressed several conferences, as an authority on the subject.
Legal
Jim Gunderson studied US and European law and has worked at law firms in San Francisco, New York and Amsterdam. He has held half a dozen legal positions in global companies based in Houston, New York and London, including Secretary and General Counsel of Schlumberger Limited and Vetco International (now part of GE). He is admitted to practice law in New York, inactive attorney in California.
Transactions
Beginning with the $132 million acquisition of cellular technology pioneer, E.F. Johnson Company, in 1982 and continuing with dozens of joint ventures the following year, when cellular phone licenses were first being sold in markets all over the US, Jim started his professional career assisting global and local companies scrambling to enter that new industry.
Jim was hired by Schlumberger Limited in part to bring M&A expertise in-house. He negotiated and managed acquisitions and divestitures in Europe and the US ranging from tens of millions to billions of dollars in value, as well as joint ventures in Asia, Europe, and the US that focused on Internet services, utility and telecom equipment and services, as well as the oilfield.
After co-developing Schlumberger’s in-house training program on managing M&A and joint venture transactions, he guest lectured on those subjects at law and business schools in Europe and the US.
Governance and Transactions' first client was a European utility equipment company requiring management of a series of divestitures, and the firm has been assisting clients with M&A and JV issues in Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S. since then.