Team

Jim Ryan, our International Trade Specialist at the IL SBDC International Trade Center (ITC), has a wealth of overseas experience and a passion for international trade. He advises clients on a wide range of international business opportunities, including export readiness, import and export compliance, foreign market identification and entry, and strategies for international growth and market diversification.

Jim is a Certified Business Development Advisor, a Certified Global Business Professional and, as a past president, is active in the Illinois Entrepreneurship and Small Business Growth Association (IESBGA), as a member of the Coordinating Council and planning committee for the annual conference. He is the coordinator for the Foster College of Business Global Scholars Program and lectures in international business.

Jim lived in Asia for over a decade where he taught at colleges in Singapore and Malaysia and worked for San Jose-based technology firms, where he held positions in international contracts and negotiations, concentrating on foreign market entry and start-up operations in Southeast Asia, the UK and the US. He launched an import/export venture in 1997, expanding it to include retail operations in Kuala Lumpur in 2001 and Miami Beach in 2002, while continuing to offer consulting services to companies entering the US and Asia.

Jim, a native Peorian, received his B.A. from Stetson University in Florida and an LL.B from the University of Glamorgan School of Law and Finance in Wales. After completing his law degree, he received a graduate diploma from the Institute on International and Comparative Law at Oxford University in England and then returned to the US to receive an LL.M in International and Comparative Law from the University of San Diego School of Law.

While at the ITC, he has enjoyed pursuing his interest in Southeast Asia by leading trade missions to Indonesia and Thailand, recruiting students from Indonesia and Vietnam, teaching Bradley’s May study abroad in Thailand and Singapore, and was the program director for a U.S. Department of Education Title VI B BIE grant for the ITC’s Southeast Asia (SEA) Change project. SEA Change provided faculty and students and Illinois businesses opportunities to prepare for Southeast Asia’s expanding role in the global economy. Jim is active in a number of student sports clubs, as an advisor and is a volunteer on campus for the non-profit, Peoria Grown. He has been at Bradley since 2008.