EXECUTIVE LEADER | ENTREPRENEUR | ELECTED OFFICIAL | PROFESSIONAL SPEAKER
Wanda James is a nationally recognized executive leader, entrepreneur, elected official, United States Navy veteran, and professional speaker whose career spans business, public policy, higher education governance, strategic communications, hospitality, and social impact.
A first-generation college graduate and the first Black woman commissioned through the University of Colorado Naval ROTC Battalion, Wanda has spent more than 25 years building businesses, advising leaders, shaping public policy, and creating opportunities in spaces where access and power have historically been limited.
She currently serves as an elected Regent of the University of Colorado, helping govern a four-campus public university system with a budget exceeding $6 billion. She is also the founder of CGI Consulting, where she advises executives, organizations, and public leaders on strategy, communications, reputation, stakeholder engagement, and organizational growth.
Earlier in her career, Wanda and her husband made history as the first Black people in America legally licensed to own a cannabis dispensary, cultivation, and edible company. She went on to build Simply Pure into a nationally recognized brand. She became one of the country’s most influential voices on cannabis policy, criminal justice reform, entrepreneurship and economic opportunity.
Today, Wanda speaks nationally on leadership, power and human potential, challenging audiences to think differently about who gets access, who gets heard and what becomes possible when people are given the opportunity to lead.
