Jim Walker is a consultant, speaker, and author on human resource strategy and contemporary workforce management issues. Jim led The Walker Group, a niche consulting firm for twenty years. Previously he was with Towers Perrin for fifteen years where he was a Vice President and practice leader.

He was author of Human Resource Planning and nine other books that were influential in the development of strategic human resource management concepts and practices. He was founder of the Human Resource Planning Society and has been active in many professional activities.

He earned a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Iowa and was a professor in the business schools at Indiana University, San Diego State University, and Arizona State University early in his career. He also has taught in executive development programs at The Wharton School.

Jim is co-author, with Dr. Linda Lewis, of Work Wanted: Protect Your Retirement Plan in Uncertain Times (Wharton School Publishing, 2009). It is a research-based guide to the choices that Baby Boomer professionals must make today. Jim has long had an interest in the field of aging and work, having led research projects on retirement while at Towers Perrin and having written and consulted on the subject. He and his wife, Harriet Lazer, co-authored a book, The End of Mandatory Retirement: Implications for Management (Wiley), to explain what the elimination of forced retirement meant to businesses. The book was also published in Japanese.

He is Chairman of The Riford Center in La Jolla, California. The Riford Center offers learning, health and fitness, and social activities for adults 50 and older. Jim and his volunteer colleagues are working to reinvent the traditional "senior center" to meet the very different needs of the Baby Boomer generation.