James “Jim” Free is a natural leader whose breadth of experience in technical and management areas has led to significant achievements across organizations, programs, people and spaceflight through his servant leadership style and collaborative approach.

He is currently the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Consultant at Lead OFF The X. He has a 34-year career in the Aerospace industry both in the United States and internationally. Jim served with NASA for 30 years in roles from discipline engineer through Senior Executive with the culminating role as the NASA Associate Administrator, the highest-ranking career civil servant at NASA. In these roles he managed infrastructure, operations, policy and future planning for critical NASA missions including significant roles/interfaces with International partners including Europe, and Japan. In his time outside of NASA, Jim worked in private industry developing future space system architectures; overseeing spaceflight hardware programs; assessing major human space flight programs; and providing policy inputs on future US and international programs.

Jim has over 34 years of domestic and international management experience with leadership roles that include senior executive management, technical development program/project management, organizational change, financial management, short- and long-term strategic planning, cross industry and government engagement, strategic partnerships and alliances, and internal and external community engagement.