James Carter joined Academy Securities as a Director in June 2019. He is the lead banker for the firm’s central region footprint, with coverage concentrated in the Midwest and Texas, along with select coverage in Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, New York, and California. He began his career in 2004 at J.P. Morgan Securities in New York as part of the Asset-Backed Securities group, covering Student Loan, Credit Card, and UK/Australian Mortgage-Backed Securities issuers. After J.P. Morgan, Mr. Carter found his way to municipal finance, opening up the Houston office for Cabrera Capital Markets. After coming back home to Chicago for graduate school, he worked at a variety of smaller firms in municipal finance, where he was tasked with building and expanding those firms’ presence primarily in the Midwest and Southwest. Most recently, Mr. Carter was Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking for Melvin & Company in Chicago, covering municipal and corporate issuer clients nationally.

Mr. Carter has volunteered since 2010 for the Chicago Summer Business Institute (CSBI), which provides investment banking, corporate law and government internships to talented Chicago-area students, and joined the CBSI Board of Directors in 2016. In addition, he is entering his fourth consecutive term (fifth overall) as Board President for the Chicago-area University of Florida Alumni Association. Mr. Carter has a BS in Business Management from the University of Florida and graduated with honors from DePaul University’s MBA program. He holds the Series 7, 24, 50, 52, and 63 licenses.