Trustee

James Ellis

James Ellis is an academician, professor, and former business executive who for fourteen years, was dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Ellis moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his father, George James Ellis, served as an executive for a bank; then in 1962, he co-founded the American Bank of Commerce in Albuquerque. In Albuquerque, Ellis attended Jefferson Middle School and Highland High School, graduating in 1964. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1968 from the University of New Mexico, where he served on the board of the university’s fund-raising foundation. Ellis earned an MBA in 1970 from Harvard. Ellis is an expert on global commerce, a successful business executive and prominent civic leader in the Los Angeles area.