Jim Staton is Vice President for Information Technology at Mutual Distributing Company, the largest alcohol beverage distributing company in North Carolina.

While Jim never worked with IBM midrange systems at IBM, one of his first programming jobs was developing software for an IBM System/3 Model 6 for his family's business. He continued to develop RPG applications for the business in his spare time on a System/32, System/34, System/36, and eventually the AS/400.

In 1978, Jim joined IBM at the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, where he worked with computer communications and protocol standardization. As a manager at IBM, he was responsible for IBM's work with the IEEE 802.x committees to complete the standards for the 802.2-5 protocols for local area networks. In 1985, Jim joined the IBM European Networking Center in Heidelberg, Germany, where he managed the development of IBM's first prototype implementing the CCITT X400 Standard, which were the rules governing the first universal email system. While at IBM, Jim was awarded two patents in communication protocols as well as an Outstanding Technical Achievement Award for his work with X.400 Message Handling System. He also coauthored several articles on computer communications for the IBM Systems Journal.

Jim has been a speaker at a number of conferences on a variety of topics, including communications protocols, supply chain management, mobile applications, and business intelligence.

Jim graduated from Ohio State University in 1978 with an MS degree in Computer Science.