ESOP Association Leadership

From The ESOP Association’s national headquarters in Washington, DC, James Bonham serves as President and CEO, leading The Association and its 18 state and regional chapters throughout the nation. Bonham also serves as President of the Employee Ownership Foundation, whose mission is to educate and expand employee ownership throughout the United States.

Bonham is a recognized expert in public policy, government advocacy, and executive leadership. He brings more than 25 years of experience as a high level government official, advisor, and business leader with expertise in the fields of taxes, labor, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, and government contracting.

Before joining The Association, Bonham was Chairman for nearly eight years of the highly regarded Public Policy and Government Relations practice at Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP, a nationally recognized law and business consulting firm. In this role, Bonham led teams of lawyers, policy experts, and advocates representing clients as diverse as New York Life, The Recording Academy (Grammy’s), StarKist, and the American Land Title Association.

During a decade of public service, Bonham held multiple senior staff positions, including Chief of Staff in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, where he was frequently cited in the media as one of the 50 most influential aides of either political party.

His passion for shared capitalism springs from a family commitment to employee ownership: His grandfather had a personal and professional relationship with James Cash (J.C.) Penney, based partly on a shared business philosophy. One of their beliefs was granting a form of ownership to employees in the small mercantile businesses they ran. Bonham is proud to carry on today his family tradition of expanding employee ownership.

Ali Jamshidi is the Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at CTL Engineering Inc., in Columbus, OH. He has worked at CTL, which is 100% employee owned, since 1985.

Ali has been very active in The ESOP Association and has served in multiple leadership positions. On the Board of Directors, he has served as Secretary/Treasurer and Vice Chair; as Vice Chair, he presided over a special committee tasked with evaluating and updating The Association’s strategic plan.

He has been the Board Liaison to the Executive Committee of the State and Regional Chapter Council, the Committee Chair of the Board of Governors, and the President of TEA’s Ohio/Kentucky Chapter.

Ali also has held leadership roles for the Employee Ownership Foundation, where he has been a member of the Board of Trustees and has served on the Executive Committee. He also serves on the boards of other ESOP companies.