Leadership

James (Jim) Thompson

Founding Director

Jim Thompson is the founding Director of ORIX Foundation, and it is through his vision and initiative that ORIX Foundation was commenced. As President and CEO of ORIX USA Corporation, Jim established a corporate giving program within ORIX USA in 2006 to encourage employee giving and address community needs. Jim has been on the board of Dallas CASA, a non-profit group that advocates for abused and neglected children, since 2007. Jim and his wife, Angela, also founded the James and Angela Thompson Foundation, which supports underprivileged families and children and advances aviation education and first amendment rights. In October 2001, the Thompsons funded an endowment to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) to support scholarships in aviation education. Read more at http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-10-08_scholarship.asp.

As President and CEO of ORIX USA Corporation, Jim manages all of ORIX Corporation’s operations in the United States. Jim has 26 years of comprehensive experience in the U.S. capital markets. After joining ORIX USA in 1991 to initiate and manage ORIX USA’s activities in the commercial mortgage securities market, Jim was named Chairman and CEO of ORIX Capital Markets in 1997 and President and CEO of ORIX USA in 2004. Before joining ORIX USA, Jim held senior management positions with various financial institutions, including Financial Corporation of Santa Barbara and Mission Hills Mortgage, and was responsible for various capital markets and investment related functions.

Elizabeth Palmer Daane

President, Director and Counsel for the Foundation

Elizabeth Daane is the Executive Vice President and a founding Director of ORIX Foundation. She chairs the Charitable Giving Committee and oversees all of the programs of the Foundation. Elizabeth chaired the Foundation’s predecessor program, ORIX USA Corporation’s charity committee formed in 2006 to oversee the Company’s charitable donations and employee matching program. Elizabeth also serves on the board of Vogel Alcove, a child-care center for homeless children in Dallas, Texas.

Elizabeth is Executive Vice President of ORIX USA Corporation, where she has been General Counsel since 2004. Elizabeth advises the board of directors, supports strategic transactions and oversees all legal functions for ORIX USA’s multiple lines of business. Previously, Elizabeth was a corporate, M&A and securities lawyer at Dallas-based law firm, Jackson Walker, LLP, and has also been general counsel of a publicly traded internet service provider. Elizabeth earned a J.D. with Honors from the University of North Carolina and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Wake Forest University, where she was a Carswell Scholar.

Greg May

Executive Vice President, Director and Counsel for the Foundation

Greg May is Executive Vice President and a founding Director of ORIX Foundation.  Greg’s non-profit experience includes serving on the board and as Executive Vice President of Dallas CASA, a non-profit organization of volunteers who are voices for abused children in court; serving on the Advisory Board of Seed Effect, a non-profit “credit with education” microfinance initiative serving South Sudan; and serving on the Advisory Board of The Real Estate Council Community Fund, a Community Development Financial Institution that provides loans and technical assistance for real estate projects in low-income areas of Dallas and Collin Counties.  He has previously served on the board and as general counsel of The Family Place, the Dallas area’s largest family violence service provider.

Greg is Director and Deputy General Counsel for ORIX USA Corporation. Among other duties, his team oversees litigation for all of the ORIX USA business lines nationwide. Before joining ORIX in 2003, Greg was a commercial trial partner with Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C. in Dallas. Greg has degrees from Baylor University (B.B.A.) and Baylor University School of Law (J.D., cum laude).

Amy Howell

Secretary, Director and Counsel for the Foundation

Amy Howell is Secretary and a founding Director of ORIX Foundation, having previously served as a member of the Foundation’s predecessor program, ORIX USA Corporation’s charity committee. Amy has coordinated many of ORIX’s charity event sponsorships, including taking a leading role in fund raising, volunteer solicitation, and event organization.

Amy has been with ORIX since 2003 and is currently an Associate Counsel in ORIX USA Corporation’s legal department.  Previously, Amy was a patent attorney and litigator with the law firm of Roberts & Smaby, PC. Amy received her JD from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2000, where she was a Eugene Mason Scholar.

Michael (Mike) Cousins

Treasurer

Mike Cousins is Treasurer of ORIX Foundation, responsible for all accounting, budgeting, financial reporting and treasury functions. He became Chief Financial Officer of ORIX USA Corporation in 2004 after holding a similar position in ORIX Capital Markets since its inception in 1997. Prior to joining ORIX, Mike’s career included over 15 years in finance and accounting including senior financial positions with Bank One and its predecessors and in public accounting with KPMG and its predecessors.

Debbie Douglass

Vice President

Debbie Douglass is Vice President of ORIX Foundation. Debbie coordinates the employee matching program, including assisting employees with applications for matching donations. She also assists applicants of the Foundation with the process of applying for hardship loans and grants and works with the financial aid committee in the review and approval of applications.

Debbie is the Director of Human Resources for ORIX USA Corporation and has served ORIX USA and its predecessor companies in this capacity for 20 years. Debbie manages the Human Resources department, provides advice and guidance to ORIX USA management and employees in the areas of recruitment and placement, employee relations, employee benefit programs, pay and performance. Debbie earned a Senior Professional in Human Resources certification from the Society of Human Resource Management.

Carol Greene

Foundation Administrator

Carol Greene is the Foundation Administrator for ORIX Foundation. In this role, Carol will manage ORIX Foundation’s Charitable Giving Program, in which it directly funds certain partner charities, and the Employee Matching Program, in which the company matches funds raised or donated by ORIX USA employees. She will also assist ORIX Foundation’s employee board of directors in overseeing and directing the foundation’s activities.

Prior to joining the ORIX Foundation, Carol worked for many years in various capacities within the nonprofit sector, most recently as the Regional Director of the United Way of Prince George’s County, Maryland. Carol graduated with a B.A. from The American University in Washington, DC in 1989 where she was a Frederick Douglass scholar, and received her M.S. from Trinity College, also in Washington, DC.