The Honorable James W. Ziglar

Jim Ziglar has over 40 years of experience in law, finance, management, and public policy.  He provides strategic business and policy advice to a broad range of clients on issues relating to energy and natural resources, health care, public infrastructure finance, and homeland security.

Professional Background

Mr. Ziglar retired in 2008 as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cross Match Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of biometric technologies.  Before joining Cross Match Technologies, Inc. in August 2005, Mr. Ziglar was a Managing Director and Chief Business Strategist at UBS Financial Services, Inc. in New York. 

Mr. Ziglar had over 16 years of experience in investment banking, including 10 years with UBS, prior to departing in 1998 to serve as Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate.  From August 2001 until his retirement from federal service in December 2002, Mr. Ziglar served as the last Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.  Before rejoining UBS in 2004, Mr. Ziglar was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School, and a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics.  Mr. Ziglar practiced law from 1973 to 1980, providing legal services for public infrastructure, health care, and water and power projects.

In addition to his positions as Commissioner of the INS and as Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, Mr. Ziglar has served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun, as a congressional and public affairs officer at the Department of Justice, and as an aide to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Government Service

Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Department of Justice, 2001-2002
Sergeant at Arms, U.S. Senate, 1998 - 2001
Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1987-1989
Law Clerk, Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court, 1972-1973

Professional and Civic Affiliations

• Director, Radiation Effects Research Foundation (Hiroshima, Japan)
• Director, National Water Resources Association
• Trustee, Harry A. Blackmun Scholarship Foundation
• Senior Fellow and Advisor to the Board, Migration Policy Institute
• Director, Center for Civic Education
• Steering Committee, Campaign for Civic Education

Articles

• The Real Price of Sealing the Border
• Why the U.S. Had to Challenge Arizona on Immigration

News

• Jim Ziglar Featured in Washington Post Online Discussion on Security of Elected Officials
• Van Ness Feldman's Jim Ziglar Featured in U.S. State Department Article on Trip to Mongolia
• Van Ness Feldman's Jim Ziglar Quoted in Article on Biometric Technology
• Former Senior Government Official and Corporate Executive Joins Van Ness Feldman’s Public Policy Practice