James Cole

James joined Johnston & Associates in 2025 as the Director of Loss Control after a decade as an Environmental Health and Safety and Continuous Improvement manager in heavy equipment manufacturing and the automotive steel processing industry.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from UNC-Charlotte, where he also commissioned into the Army via their ROTC program. He served on active duty from 2005-2014, with two deployments with the 10th Mountain Division and the 82nd Airborne Division. James enjoys meeting with clients, learning about their processes and people, and using a combination of data and observations to identify and reduce hazards and eliminate nonvalue added activity. His primary goal is always taking care of the people doing the work. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son and playing golf.