James J. Harford

Jim Harford was born in Albany, New York and grew up and was educated n the New York City metro area. He joined the army after high school and participated in a 6 month active duty and 7 1/2 year reserve obligation and enrolled at Fordham University after completing his active duty training assignment. Mr. Harford was graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1960.

After graduating, Harford entered the soft drink industry as an independent owner-operator distributor for Joyce Beverages, which at the time, was the largest Seven Up bottler in the world. He subsequently managed the Washington Seven Up Bottling Co. and later joined Royal Crown Cola in 1967 and became the youngest corporate Vice President in the company's history in 1969.

He left Royal crown in 1972 and managed bottling plants for Canada Dry in San Francisco and Chicago before returning to R. C. as Vice President, Sales & Marketing and later President of Company Owned plants, before leaving again in 1978 to become President of Canada Dry Mid-South in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1980, Harford was recruited by Citicorp Venture Capital and the Coca Cola Co. to become President of Mid-Atlantic Coca Cola Bottling Co., the first large leveraged buyout ( LBO ) in the soft drink industry. Mid-Atlantic grew organically by 39 % in case volume over the next 5 years and became the low cost producer in the Coca Cola system. The company achieved the highest profitability of any operation with a parent company investment under Harford's leadership.

Mr. Harford was recruited to become Chairman of Joyce Beverages, the company where he started in 1984, and later became President of The Seven Up Company in 1987 ,when the national company in Dallas, TX , was acquired from Philip Morris by a group of investors formed by Tom Hicks. Under Harford's leadership, 7-UP brands achieved the first volume increase in 8 years and generated an operating profit of 41 million dollars compared with a prior year loss under the ownership of Philip Morris.

Mr. Harford left the business when the company was sold to Prudential-Bache in 1990, and moved to St. Simons Island, GA where he invested in real estate and restaurants. He re-entered the soft drink business again as C.O.O. of All American Bottling Co., a large Seven Up – R.C. bottler in the central U.S. in 1994 and later managed Everfresh-LaCroix for National Beverage Co. He subsequently managed the Asian business for Monarch Beverage Company and Eon Beverage Group ,which marketed a structured botttled Mr water product for the health food channels.

Mr. Harford has operated a beverage consulting practice which has involved carbonated, non-carb, bottled water and juice products, both in the U.S and Internationally and joined Cascadia Consulting Group in 2008.