President and Chief Executive Officer

James P. Hackett is president and chief executive officer and director of Steelcase Inc., the global leader in the office furniture industry. Steelcase delivers a better work experience to its customers by providing products, services and insights into the ways people work. Its portfolio includes architecture, furniture and technology products.

The company and its subsidiaries serve their customers through a network of over 600 independent dealers and have approximately 13,500 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2008 revenue was $3.4 billion.

Jim oversees all operations of Steelcase Inc., including domestic and international operations.

Jim was named president and chief executive officer of Steelcase Inc. in December 1994. Previously, Jim served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Steelcase North America, a position he was named to in August 1994.

In April 1994, Jim was named executive vice president of Steelcase Ventures. He was responsible for the design and development of products for non-contract furniture industry customers in addition to developing new company opportunities.

In August 1993, Jim was named president of Turnstone, a Steelcase company created exclusively to meet the office furnishing needs of small businesses and home offices. The Turnstone model, designed to service new ways in which people do their work, was unique in the contract furniture industry.

In 1990, Jim was named Steelcase's senior vice president of Sales and Marketing. He joined Steelcase in 1981 and held a variety of sales and marketing positions in the company, including regional manager in Houston, Texas, in 1984 and director of national accounts from 1986 to 1990. Before joining Steelcase, Jim held sales and management positions at Procter & Gamble in Detroit, Michigan, from 1977 to 1981.

Jim serves on the board of directors for Northwestern Mutual Life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a member of the boards of advisors to the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan. Additionally, he is a past president of the Institute of Design Board of Overseers at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Jim graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in general studies.