Jim Cowie

Jim Cowie is the Chief Legal Officer at the Ellison Institute. Before joining the team in 2020, he served for more than 12 years as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNS), as part of the executive management team that led the company through a turnaround that produced strong growth in revenue, profitability, employment and culture (earning recognition including Fortune - 100 Best Companies to Work For, Great Place to Work - World’s 25 Best Workplaces, People - 50 Companies that Care, and ranked #1 among technology companies by Investor’s Business Daily in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) and total shareholder return far in excess of the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500 indices.

Before Cadence, he held positions of increasing responsibility at companies in health information software and services, retail and real estate development, and began his legal career at the law firm now known as Troutman Pepper. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Stanford University’s Buck/Cardinal Club, and the Service Leadership Corps for The Mission Continues. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Business Software Alliance. Before attending law school, he served for more than four years as an officer in the United States Navy, primarily aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, and achieving the rank of Lieutenant. Jim received a degree in Economics from Duke and received his JD from Stanford Law School.