James (Jim) MacLennan

Talking Tree Ventures is an advisory services firm focused on advancing Sustainability through innovative forestry solutions. Talking Tree Ventures helps startups and early-stage companies in the areas of Reforestation, Forest Economics, and Fire Management discover new opportunities, accelerate their projects with expert advice, and access capital to fuel growth.

VentureDNA LLC is an established venture capital firm north of Chicago. Jim leads the Advisory Services arm, include defining and refining product strategy, revenue and operations, and investor outreach. VentureDNA helps startups and early-stage companies in a wide range of disciplines discover new opportunities, accelerate their projects with expert advice, and access capital to fuel growth

Maker Turtle is an advisory services firm focused on advancing Sustainability through innovative forestry solutions. Maker Turtle helps startups and early-stage companies in the areas of Reforestation, Forest Economics, and Fire Management discover new opportunities, accelerate their projects with expert advice, and access capital to fuel growth.

Drove the creation of a new strategic consulting arm for this traditional systems integrator. Advisory services included aligning customer strategy and value creation metrics to a practical, focused, and impactful roadmap of initiatives. Focus on connected digital products, sustainability, and leveraging information to drive value.

Responsible for enabling and driving value creation and sustainable excellence in a diversified global portfolio of business units, through the effective user of information and information technology.

Tactical & strategic responsibility for overall IT planning, resourcing, & prioritization of systems & services supporting the Pactiv Foodservice & Food Packaging business unit (>$3B), plus oversight of IT units in Mexico and Europe. Concurrent responsibility for establishing & maintaining global functional architecture encompassing SAP, Supply Chain Systems, Reporting & Analytics, and Engineering supporting Reynolds Consumer Products, Pactiv Foodservice and Food Packaging, & Closure Systems International.

Lead IT responsibility for the Foodservice / Food Packaging business unit (>$3B), plus "horizontal" (ie. supporting Foodservice and Consumer Products business units) IT responsibilities including SAP, Supply Chain Systems, Reporting & Analytics, and R&D / Engineering systems. Oversight responsibility for IT organizations in our wholly-owned subsidiaries in Mexico and Europe.

Lead IT role, focused on North American systems (international oversight); annual North American IT budget of $5M; responsible for 30+ member International IT team, including internal / external resources.