Candidate Biography (submitted by campaign):

Seven generations after his working family joined others to help shape North Carolina, Jim Neal’s energy, economic expertise, and middle-class values make him uniquely qualified to help shape the next generation.

The grandson of a carpenter, public school teacher and two mill workers, Neal was born in Greensboro in 1956. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. Following graduation he joined Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst. He returned to school at the University of Chicago where he earned an MBA and worked a series of part-time jobs to pay his way through school. As an investment banker at Salomon Brothers he earned a reputation for leadership and innovative strategies while advising Fortune 500 companies on how to play successful roles in a changing global economy.

Neal worked as a senior investment banker with E.F Hutton and Bear Stearns, serving clients that ranged from Bank of America and American Express to Lincoln National Corporation and Transamerica.

For the past two decades, Neal has focused his career on information technology and healthcare companies, including serving as chief executive officer of RxMarketplace.com, a start-up firm that helped pharmacists offer patients prescription drugs at more affordable prices. Since 2000, Neal has led several private companies prior to founding The Agema Group, a financial advisory firm based in Chapel Hill.

Neal has served his community as an overnight volunteer at a homeless shelter, served dinner in soup kitchens, was a lay minister to mentally ill residents of an assisted-care facility, and a sponsor of a post-war Vietnamese refugee family in alliance with the International Rescue Committee.

Neal lives in Chapel Hill with the younger of his two sons, Winston. His older son, James, is lives in New York City.

My name is Jim Neal and I’m running for the U.S. Senate.

I was born and raised in Greensboro.  My mom was born in a mill village.

I had an opportunity mom never HAD - I graduated from UNC and I earned a masters degree in finance at the University of Chicago.

I went to work on Wall Street as an investment banker. I ran a few small businesses...... and I raised two boys as a single parent.

I’ve worked on Wall Street, I’ve worked on Main Street and I’ve stood in an unemployment line. 

Growing up in North Carolina, I was taught some basic values by my parents and my family and my neighbors: equality, opportunity and fair play.

Today, equality means the richest 1% shouldn’t have 25 percent of the nation’s wealth, while 47 million people don’t have access TO EVEN the most basic health care.

When I grew up in Greensboro, I came from a modest background, but I had the opportunity to attend the best schools our nation offers.

Now, for the first time in our country's history, parents doubt whether their children will be better off.

Opportunity means children in our rural schools should have the same education as children in our biggest cities.

Fair play means we use our strength as a nation to lead the world with a foreign policy that reflects humanity’s greatest hopes, not our greatest fears.

America remains THE most admired nation in the world, not because of our military might, but because of our commitment to equality, opportunity and fair play.

This year, when you go to the polls, I implore you to vote for what you want not for what you think you can get.

I hope I can earn your vote on May 6th and November 4th, and I thank you for taking the time to learn more about my campaign and our democracy.