Mr. James Blair is the Founder and Managing Director of Navigator Consulting LLC, a business site selection consultancy based out of Tryon NC. Navigator Consulting offers customized business site selection services to European SME’s, primarily to companies from the German “Mittelstand”, seeking to establish business operations in the U.S.

Mr. Blair cooperates closely with the Berlin-based site selection group TerrLogis Consulting to coordinate the full range of business location services (facility or site selection, operating cost analysis, introduction to statewide economic development authorities, business incentives, etc.) in collaboration with state economic development agencies and with private sector partners like attorneys, tax accountants, engineering firms, etc.

Mr. Blair was previously Director of Foreign Direct Investment at the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Mr. Blair coordinated the business recruitment efforts of Georgia’s international offices in Europe, Japan, Korea and China and managed a specialized team of project managers in Atlanta who work with international executives seeking to locate business operations in the USA. Executive Director of Georgia’s European Office in Brussels for 18 years before returning to Georgia in 2005, Mr. Blair also served as Chairman of the Council of American States in Europe, the official organization of US states with full-time FDI offices in Europe.

Before working with Georgia, Mr. Blair spent five years in international banking at Bank of America. In 25 years of working in the field of economic development, Mr. Blair has helped locate 175 international companies in Georgia whose subsidiaries today employ some 8,000 persons. These include large companies like JCB, Porsche, UCB, Randstad and Saint Gobain, as well as smaller companies like Balta Carpets, Hansgrohe, Knapp Logistics, Perkins Engines and WIKA Instruments.

Mr. Blair was awarded the prestigious “Officer of the Order of Merit” medal by the French government in 2012 in honor of his service in promoting French-American business relations. In 2023 he was awarded the Order of Leopold by the Belgian government.

Mr. Blair has a BA and an international MBA from the University of South Carolina; he speaks German, Dutch and French.