Jim Tamm is a former judge and adjunct law professor, an author and an expert in building collaborative workplace environments. He has worked in the field of alliance building and conflict resolution for over 35 years, most of that time as a third-party neutral. He has worked in private industry (General Electric Company), the public sector (the National Labor Relations Board and the California Public Employment Relations Board), and higher education (the Institute of Industrial Relations, San Jose State University, and visiting faculty at Santa Clara University School of Law). 

His undergraduate work at San Jose State University was in the field of industrial management. Jim received his law degree from Santa Clara University in 1975, and was the San Francisco Regional Director and a Senior Administrative Law Judge for California's Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) for 25 years. He has mediated over 1,500 employment disputes, including more school labor strikes than any other individual in the nation. His legal decisions have received national attention and have impacted national labor policy.

The California Senate, the California Assembly and the California PERB have all honored Jim for his work in the field of building collaborative employment environments. In addition to Radical Collaboration, Jim is a contributing author of California Public Sector Labor Relations, a book sponsored by the California State Bar Association which is widely seen as the foremost authority of public sector labor law in California, and The Human Element @ Work, a fieldbook of projects transforming organizations around the world. He has authored training materials that have been translated into eight languages.

As a professional member of the National Speakers Association, he has been a frequent speaker at national and international conferences such as the American Society of Training and Development, the Society for Human Resource Management, the National School Boards Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Foundation for Women Legislators, the Mexican National Businesswomen’s Conference, the China Ministry of Information Industry Conference, and the International Organizational Development Network Conference. He is also a regular presenter on collaborative skills in the NASA Management Education Program.

Jim is one of the designers and original faculty members of a highly successful training program designed to enhance collaborative work environments in California school systems, a program that was underwritten by the Hewlett and Stuart Foundations. Jim is currently vice president of the international consulting firm Business Consultants Network, Inc. and specializes in large-scale change efforts aimed at building a culture of collaboration within organizations. 

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