James A. Thomas is Chairman and CEO of Thomas Properties Group and past Chairman of Parkway Properties, Inc. (PKY), a real estate investment trust listed on the NYSE. Previously, Thomas was the founder of Thomas Properties Group (TPG), a firm that he led as Chairman and CEO for a decade, guiding its growth as both a public and private company. The company’s national portfolio comprised 12 million square feet of office and mixed-use properties. Prior to founding TPG, Thomas served as co-managing partner of Maguire Thomas Partners, a national development company that he founded with Robert F. Maguire III. Maguire Thomas Partners is largely responsible for the skyline of downtown Los Angeles, having developed Library Tower (now US Bank Tower), Wells Fargo Center, and Gas Company Tower. He started his professional career as an attorney and practiced law for 20 years. He was a partner in two prominent Los Angeles law firms and previously served as a trial attorney in the Regional Counsel’s Office of the US Treasury in Los Angeles. Born in Pembroke, North Carolina, Thomas is a Lumbee Indian, the largest Indian tribe in the southeast United States. He moved to Cleveland in high school, receiving his B.A. in economics with honors from Baldwin-Wallace University in 1959. He attended Case Western Reserve University before transferring to CSU College of Law where he graduated magna cum laude with a Juris Doctor in 1963. He was editor-in-chief of the Cleveland Marshall Law Review. Thomas and his wife Sally of 60 years live in Brentwood Park and have two daughters and two grandchildren.