James Nixon, MBA

Digital & Tech Transformation | Artificial Intelligence | Ex-Marriott, Hilton, Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, CNN, New York Times, Deloitte, Microsoft | Board Member | Best-Selling Author

Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

About

I am a transformational leader with a 20+ year track record of building digital strategies, experiences, products, and organizational structures with strong business results for Citizens, Johnson & Johnson, Southwest Airlines, Hilton, Office Depot, Marriott, CNN Digital, The New York Times Company, Deloitte Consulting, and Microsoft. Throughout my career, I have been recognized for driving change, innovation, and digital transformation across multi-national organizations that have resulted in dramatic improvements in revenue, profit, and market share. The key to my success has been my laser focus on delivering consistent value and growing the business. I take great pride on my ability to understand business, customer, and market needs to quickly define the strategy, build great teams, and design and launch products, services, and experiences that have fueled multi-billion dollar revenue streams. I am a recipient of Cornell University Johnson School’s Wilbur Parker Distinguished Alumni Award, which recognizes African-American alumni who demonstrate outstanding professional achievement and commitment to their community, and who embody Johnson’s shared values of mutual respect, collaboration, integrity and trust, pride and accountability, professionalism, and investment in self. I am also the best-selling author and publisher of The Pursuit of Happiness at Work: A Practical Guide to Having a Purpose-Filled Career, a book based on Nixon's experience as a corporate strategist and technology innovation executive for incredible companies like Hilton, CNN, Microsoft, Deloitte, Marriott, The New York Times, and others; The Pursuit of Happiness at Work brings to life proven strategies and true stories to guide you toward happiness in both your life and work.

Experience

  • Head of Product - Artificial Intelligence & Digital Omnichannel Experience at Citizens
    Jun 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 2 mos

    Recruited to spearhead the digital strategy and transformation for assisted channels, including branches, contact centers, and AI-driven self-service. Developed a multi-layered AI ecosystem (Agentic, Generative, and Traditional AI) to migrate high-volume customer traffic to digital channels, drive sales, and optimize operational efficiency. Modernized and migrated legacy applications to a secure, cloud-based environment; prioritized the removal of technical debt through system decommissioning and platform upgrades that eliminated redundant systems.

  • Board Member at Union County Vocational Technical School
    2024 - Present · 2 yrs 7 mos

  • Senior Artificial Intelligence Transformation Leader | Management Consultant at Southwest Airlines
    2024 - Jun 2024 · 6 mos

    Nixon’s management consulting firm was retained to scale Southwest Airline’s artificial intelligence and data transformation capability to an enterprise center of excellence unlocking several hundred million dollars of incremental value over several years from the use of Agentic, Gen-AI, and Traditional AI.

  • Head of Product - Digital Experience Platform & Artificial Intelligence | Management Consultant at Johnson & Johnson
    2022 - 2024 · 2 yrs

    Nixon's management consulting firm was retained to lead the digital enterprise transformation for Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Health division (Kenvue) to a SaaS Digital Experience Platform (DXP) that delivers an SEO-optimized experience across 100+ global brands and healthcare professional websites.

  • Hilton ()
    • Head of Product - Marketing Technology & Artificial Intelligence
      2021 - 2022 · 1 yr

      Assumed an executive leadership role to develop the strategy and drive the build out of a marketing technology (MarTech) and artificial intelligence (AI) enterprise platform that activates experiences that personalize guest journeys, optimize spend, and grow share of wallet across all channels - website, mobile, email, property, call centers, and social media.

    • Head of Product - Property Experience
      2019 - 2021 · 2 yrs

      Brought into executive leadership role to create the “hotel of the future” by defining the business case, securing the resources, and driving the transformation of several global legacy property management systems into an API-enabled, microservices architecture, cloud-based Property Engagement Platform that reduces cost by 20%, boosts sales, and empowers associates to deliver frictionless guest experiences.