Founder and Chairman
James W. Lintott founded and leads Sterling Foundation Management and has extensive business, management and philanthropic experience. Through his years as head of one of the nation’s largest private foundations and as Chairman of Sterling, Jim has acquired deep knowledge, valuable experience, tremendous problem-solving skills and sound judgement, which has earned him the reputation as a leading advisor in both the nonprofit and for-profit worlds.
As a sought-after speaker for both professional and lay audiences, Jim frequently delivers presentations to financial advisors, estate planning attorneys, and wealthy donors on a number of topics, such as non-profit organisation compliance and effective planned giving.
His expertise on charitable giving and philanthropic activity is wide-ranging. He has developed successful projects for clients, including symposia on destigmatising certain medical conditions, programmes to gauge the effectiveness of scholarship programmes, the development of local cancer screening programmes and the creation of educational curricula for college and graduate students. He is the author, along with Roger Silk, of Creating a Private Foundation and Managing Foundations and Charitable Trusts.
Prior to founding Sterling, Jim was an executive at the nation’s largest privately held company, where he worked closely with the principals and played a critical role advising the company’s leaders on various issues, including their most important philanthropic endeavours.
Jim received his J.D. (with distinction) from Stanford Law School as well as an M.A. in applied economics and B.A. degrees (Phi Beta Kappa) in economics and political science from Stanford University. He served as a senior editor of the Stanford Law Review and was instrumental in developing the non-profit Stanford Law School Asian Trade Consortium. He was also a founding member of the Law and Business Society.
Beyond his professional responsibilities, Jim serves on the boards of several well-known national charities, including Children’s National Medical Centre, the United States-Japan Foundation, the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and Best Buddies International. He has chaired numerous select committees, national organisations and non-profit campaigns. Jim is a founder and director, alongside his wife, of their family foundation.