Jim Thompson, founder and CEO of Positive Coaching Alliance, started PCA in 1998 to transform the culture of youth sports into a Development Zone™ with the goal to develop Better Athletes, Better People. PCA’s vision of youth sports as a Development Zone has attracted the support and involvement of many elite coaches, athletes, academics and business leaders in this country.
Jim received an MBA from Stanford where he was Director of the Public Management Program, named during his tenure as the nation's top non-profit business management program. He has written nine books on youth sports including: Positive Coaching, The Double-Goal Coach, Shooting in the Dark, Elevating Your Game and Developing Better Athletes, Better People.
An Ashoka fellow, Jim and PCA received the inaugural ETHOS Award from the Institute for Sports Law and Ethics (ISLE) in 2013 and he is now on the ISLE Board. He is on Stanford's Continuing Studies Program faculty where he teaches courses in coaching, leadership, and sport & spiritually. Jim and his wife, Sandra Hietala, are founding board members of Recovery Café San José, a healing community for individuals with mental illness and drug abuse issues.
