James R. Lucas

James (Jim) Raymond Lucas was born March 9, 1950 in St. Louis, Missouri. Lucas' father James was a veteran of WWII where he served as a medic and was awarded two Bronze Stars for valor. After the war, he worked for the United States Postal Service before starting his own business. Lucas is the eldest of five children, all born to his father James and mother Anna. In 1969 while on Christmas break in Kansas City with a friend from school, Lucas met Pamela Petersen. The two were married in June 1972. They made their home in Kansas City and had four children, Laura (1975), Peter (1978), David (1984), and Bethany (1987). Lucas is an author with 15 commercially published books. He is a highly regarded speaker, teacher and consultant. He has started and operated multiple businesses, including Luman International for his leadership work and EMCI (Epic Medical Concepts & Innovations) for his work in bringing human health-advancing medical devices to market. From 1983 until 1996, Lucas was pastor of Living Faith Church, a Christian non-denominational church in Overland Park, Kansas.^[1]

Education and credentials

Lucas attended St. Louis University High School and graduated with honors in 1968. He then enrolled at the University of Missouri, Rolla, where he majored in Engineering Management, graduating with honors in 1972.^[2] In 2007, Lucas received his professional degree^[3] in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri, Rolla. The University awarded Lucas its Alumni Achievement Award in 2006. In 2005 he was invited to join the Academy of Engineering Management, in which he served as President from 2005 to 2007. Lucas has been continuously listed in the Marquis Who's Who in America (1999–present), Marquis Who's Who in the World (1989–present), and Marquis Who's Who in Finance and Industry (1989–present).^[4]

Experience

Lucas' corporate career began in 1972 with VF Corporation, followed by stints at Hallmark Cards where he managed projects for the Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation, Black & Veatch Corporation where he managed construction of chemical processing and power plants, and Epic Manufacturing, an Aerospace and medical device contract manufacturing firm founded by his father-in-law, James Petersen in 1959. In 1986, at Petersen's direction, Lucas helped to find a buyer for Epic Manufacturing and negotiated a successful sale. Subsequently, Lucas founded Luman Consultants International,^[5] a management consulting firm whose mission is "Building Passionate, Thinking, Pure-Performance Organizations.^[6] " In 1985, and running until 1996, Lucas was c0-founder and pastor of Living Faith Church in Prairie Village, KS.

In the 1990s, Lucas became a senior faculty member for the American Management Association, where he wrote and taught their "Course for Presidents" from 1999 to 2002. In the early 2000s, Lucas worked as an adjunct professor, teaching courses in Leadership at Rockhurst University^[7] in Kansas City. In 2006, in addition to his role at Luman Consultants International, Lucas co-founded EMCI, a developer of medical devices.^[8] Lucas also serves as Chairman, President & CEO of Dadson Corporation, a producer of medical devices for both EMCI and other life-science companies.

Lawsuit

In 1998, a group of three members of Living Faith Church, Roger Baker, Rick Brown, and Roger Finkemeier, sued Lucas and Living Faith Church in Johnson County, Kansas civil court. The case was eventually dismissed without prejudice in 2003, with costs assessed against the Plaintiffs in favor of the Defendants.^[9]

Published works

Lucas is the author of 19 books. His first book Weeping in Ramah (out of print), a fictional story about the sanctity of life, was published in 1985.^[10] The Parenting of Champions was published in 1990, and Noah: Voyage to a New Earth in 1991. Proactive Parenting was released in 1993, and Walking through the Fire was published in 1996.^[7]

In 1997, Lucas' first business book Fatal Illusions: Shredding a Dozen Unrealities that can Keep Your Business from Success was published by Amacom Publishers.^[11] Balance of Power followed Fatal Illusions in 1998.^[12]

Lucas' book, The Passionate Organization: Igniting the Fire of Employee Commitment was published in 1999 and has gone through four printings. His leadership books have been translated into multiple languages, with particular interest shown in Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and India).

In 2001, Lucas returned to the topic of the sanctity of life with his novel A Perfect Persecution, followed in 2003 by a new parenting book, 1001 Ways to Connect with Your Kids.^[7] His 2003 book Am I the One guides young people through the process of finding a person to marry. Also released in 2003, The Paradox Principle of Parenting tackles the "both-and" questions of raising children, such as "How to have high expectations" and at the same time "How to have high tolerance."

At the end of 2003, Lucas' award-winning book on faith, Knowing the Unknowable God: How Faith Thrives on Divine Mystery was released by Waterbrook Press. He based this book in part on his studies under J. I. Packer at Regents College (Vancouver).

In 2005, Lucas returned to his business writings with, Broaden the Vision and Narrow the Focus: Managing in a World of Paradox. The book received strong reviews from a variety of sources.^[13] Lucas joined Wes Cantrell, former CEO of Lanier Business Systems, to write High Performance Ethics: 10 Timeless Principles for Next-Generation Leadership in 2007.^[14]

Beginning in 2009, Jim Lucas and Phil Hotsenpiller^[15] began a collaboration to write 7-book series, Passionate Lives and Leaders. This series explores the four underlying facets that Lucas believes are necessary for a business to achieve "pure performance," and includes stories and commentary by dozens of high-profile leaders. The first two books were released by Jim's company, Quintessential Books, in 2009, The Passion Principle and The Attraction Principle.^[16] Books three and four, The Thinking Principle and The Paradox Principle, were released in April 2010.. Books five and six, "The Performance Principle" and "The Confidence Principle," were released in 2011.

References

External links

• James R. Lucas Website
• Missouri S&T Academic Honors
• Christian Book Authors
• Evan Carmichael Biography
• Random House Biography
• Eagles Talent Biography
• Eagle's Talent Presenter Bio