James Maxwell McCormick is an American speaker, author, and professional skydiver who is known for his expertise in intelligent risk-taking and innovation. He is founder of The Research Institute for Risk Intelligence, holds ten skydiving world records,[1] and was a member of an international expedition that skydived to the North Pole. He served three years in the Reagan Administration in Washington, DC before returning to the private sector where, among other engagements, he served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at design firm Anshen+Allen Architects.
McCormick attended elementary, intermediate and high schools in Tustin, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering with an emphasis in construction management from the Viterbi School at the University of Southern California.[citation needed]
After founding a small, Los Angeles-based trucking company, McCormick moved into real estate finance in Newport Beach, California. He served three years in the Reagan Administration in Washington, DC and then returned to the private sector in southern California. He served as vice president, Construction and Development for the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic and the University of California, Irvine and was responsible for funding and building the facility. He then returned to real estate finance with Westmont Investment Company as vice president and project partner. He was then recruited to serve as Chief Operating Officer by Anshen+Allen Architects, the fifth largest architectural firm in the United States. This was the last position he held before becoming a full-time speaker, author, coach, and consultant.[3]
Government Service
McCormick served in the U.S. Department of Energy during Ronald Reagan's first term. From 1981 to 1984, the positions he held included:
Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Congressional, Intergovernmental and Public Affairs, Robert Odle
Special Assistant to the General Counsel (the first non-attorney in the department's history to hold this position)
Skydiving
McCormick landing at AT&T Park during the opening ceremonies in April, 2000 Photograph by Peter Learmonth
McCormick is a Professional Exhibition Skydiver and has jumped into numerous public events, including the inaugural Opening Day at AT&T Park (then named Pacific Bell Park)[4] in San Francisco when he delivered soil gathered from every major league baseball field to the new stadium.
McCormick at the North Pole on April 18, 1995 Photograph by Charles Nuzum
On April 18, 1995, McCormick landed a parachute at the North Pole, after exiting an Ilyushin Il-76 jet aircraft flown from Khatanga, Siiberia.[citation needed]
On July 26, 1998, McCormick was a member of a team that set a world skydiving record above Skydive Chicago, in Ottawa, Illinois. The team built a formation of 246 skydivers that we held for 7.25 seconds.[5][6] His second skydiving world record was earned on December 12, 2002, as a member of the Arizona Airspeed Skydive Arizona World Record team that build a formation of 300 skydivers.[7]
On April 18, 2004, McCormick was a member of the Z-Team when it set a world record above Zephyrhills, Florida for the largest skydive consisting of two different formations. That record was 121. He was also a member of the American delegation to World Team 2006,[8] the largest multi-national sports team ever assembled to pursue a common goal. On February 8, 2006, World Team skydivers representing thirty-five countries successfully established the current world record by creating the largest skydiving formation ever built in the skies above Udon Thani, Thailand. The record[9][10] was set when 400 World Team skydiving, exiting five C-130 Hercules military transports flying at 25,000 feet, linked together into a precisely designed formation in the colors and patterns of the Thai flag that existed for only 4.25 seconds.
In March 2007, Z-Team reconvened in Zephyrhills, Florida in an attempt to break their own world record established three years before. On March 31, they succeeded when 139 skydivers built two different formations on one jump.[11]
In 2008 McCormick was on a skydiving team that was featured in a television commercial for Honda Motors UK, titled "difficult is worth doing",[12] in which the team formed three difficult and intricate formations.
On August 28, 2011, McCormick led a team of 69 skydivers that set a Colorado state record over Longmont for the largest formation.[13][14][15][16] In the culmination of a three-year effort, the team created a snowflake formation.
On July 22 and 24, 2015 McCormick was one of the leaders of the Skydiving Hall of Fame Eagles that did the first large formation skydivesover the Experimental Aviation Association's AirVenture 2015 airshow. The team consisted of 108 skydivers plus four freefall videographers from 15 countries.[17][18][19][20] AirVenure is considered "the world's largest and most significant annual aviation events."[21]
McCormick earned his ninth world record September 29, 2015 as a member of an international team jumping in Perris, California.[22][23][24] The team of 202 skydivers completed a jump consisting of two formations. The jump met the criteria of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for an aviation world record.
On January 30, McCormick participated in a formation of a Chinese character meaning "blessings from the sky" that included 48 skydivers at Skydive DeLand in Florida. It was commissioned by the Air Sports Federation of China and televised to an estimated billion people around the world as part of Chinese New Year celebrations.</ref>[25]
Speaking
After returning from the skydiving expedition to the North Pole in 1995, McCormick became a professional speaker. His activities have expanded to include organizational consulting, executive and performance coaching, and writing books and articles. His book, The Power of Risk - How Intelligent Choices Will Make You More Successful was a 2009 finalist in the career category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.[26]The First Time Manager was a finalist for the Management Book of the Year awards [27] from the Chartered Management Institute.[28]
Published works
McCormick, Jim; Loren B. Belker; Gary S. Topchik (January 3, 2012). The First-Time Manager (6th ed.). AMACOM ISBN978-0814417836.
McCormick, Jim; Maryann Karinch (July 9, 2009). Business Lessons from the Edge - Learn How Extreme Athletes Use Intelligent Risk Taking to Succeed in Business (1sted.). McGraw Hill. ISBN978-0-07-162698-9.[30]
McCormick, Jim (September 19, 2008). The Power of Risk - How Intelligent Choices Will Make You More Successful (1sted.). Maxwell Press. ISBN978-0-9728520-0-5.
Borschel, Don; Gary Copeland; Doug Hanson; Mike Hourigan; Jim Jacobus; Jack Jobe; Jim McCormick; Colleen Stanley; Vilis Ozols; Vickie Sullivan; Jeff Staads; Ed Tate (January 2004). Motivational Selling - Advice on Selling Effectively, Staying Motivated and Being a Peak Sales Producer (1sted.). Ozoles Business Group. ISBN0-9679329-1-2.
McCormick, Jim (July 20, 2009). 365 Daily Doses of Courage: Inspiration to Help You Take Leaps in Your Life (2nded.). Maxwell Press. ISBN978-0-9728520-8-1.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2010-01-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) www.takerisks.com About Jim McCormick Accessed January 15, 2010
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2010-01-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) www.takerisks.com About Jim McCormick Accessed January 15, 2010
↑ "A Whole New Ball Game|Lore of New Park Yet to be Recorded," San Francisco Chronicle," April 12, 2000. Accessed January 23, 2010
↑ Video of the 1998 formation accessed on January 11, 2010
↑ Article entitled "The Evolution of Sport Skydiving" by Martin Myrtle. Accessed January 11, 2010
↑ |"TakeRisks.com: World Record 300-way Skydive Holds Lessons for Corporate Executive" Business Wire, December 20, 2002 Accessed January 22, 2009
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-05-23. Retrieved 2010-01-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Parachuting World Record "G-2-c1: Largest freefall formation: 400 parachutists." This is the official body for world parachuting records. Accessed January 18, 2010
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-13. Retrieved 2010-01-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) 2006 world record photographs, accessed January 12, 2010
↑ "Z-Team Sequential World Record - March 31, 2007" Accessed January 12, 2010
↑ Honda skydiving advertisement and documentary footage - Accessed January 15, 2010
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-09-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) 9News.com video, August 28, 2011. Accessed September 6, 2012
↑ Denverpost.com story and photo, August 29, 2011. Accessed September 5, 2012
↑ Timescall.com story and photo, August 28, 2011. Accessed September 5, 2012
↑ "Skydivers attempt to break record at AirVenture" USA Today story by Katy Macek. July 22, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015.
↑ "Skydivers to Make World-Record Attempts" theNorthwestern.com story by Michelle Dickmann, July 16, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015.
↑ "Eagles Over Oshkosh Set a New Wisconsin Sky-Dive Record" EAA website story by Ric Reynolds, July 25, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015.
↑ "Jim McCormick and Skydiving Hall of Fame Skydivers Go for World Record over EAA Oshkosh" EstesParkNews story. July 24, 2015. Story is on page 15 of the webfile. Accessed November 5, 2015.
↑ Top 15 Air Show Events and Festivals in the USA, updated February 2014. Accessed November 2, 2015.
↑ ABC7 News video and report by Rob McMillan. Accessed November 2, 2015.
↑ "202 Skydivers Set Record for Largest Sequential Formation in Leap over Southern California" Associated Press story posted to Torontosun.com October 1, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015.
↑ "Video Shows 202 Skydivers Shatter World Recordy by Linking in Mid-Air Lattice Formation" Associated Press story posted to nationalpost.com October 1, 2015. Accessed November 5, 2015.
↑ "Blessings from the Sky" Parachutist website, April 2018. Accessed May 16, 2018.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-08-09. Retrieved 2012-06-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Winners and Finalists of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Accessed January 25, 2010.
↑ Website for the Management Book of the Year awards. Accessed November 9, 2015.
↑ "CMI Announces Management Book of the Year Finalists," CMI Press Release, October 21, 2012. Accessed November 9, 2015.
Freeflying is a skydiving discipline which began in the late 1980s, involving freefalling in various vertical orientations, as opposed to the traditional "belly-to-earth" orientation. The discipline is known to have originated when Olav Zipser began experimenting with non-traditional forms of bodyflight. Zipser founded the FreeFly Clowns as a two-person competitive team with Mike Vail in 1992, and was joined by Omar Alhegelan, Charles Bryan, and Stefania Martinengo in 1994. The FreeFly Clowns are also credited with opening the first school to teach freeflying, The First School of Modern SkyFlying.
Formation skydiving is a skydiving event where multiple skydivers attach themselves to one another by grabbing each other's limbs or by the use of "grippers" on their jumpsuit while free falling through the sky. The goal of this skydiving program is to build a formation of multiple divers arranged in a geometric pattern.
Wingsuit flying is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add wetted area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just free falling. The modern wingsuit, first developed in the late 1990s, uses a pair of fabric membranes stretched flat between the arms and flanks/thighs to imitate an airfoil, and often also between the legs to function as a tail and allow some aerial steering.
Tracking, a basic freefall skill learned by a novice skydiver, is the technique of assuming a body position that allows the skydiver to move horizontally while freefalling.
Goulburn Airport is a general aviation airport located 7 km (4.3 mi) south of Goulburn, New South Wales. Throughout the 1990s, suggestions were put forward to have Goulburn airport as a secondary international airport to service Sydney.
Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is best known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. Doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue. Though he still holds the two latter records, the first was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet—or, 41.42 km (25.74 mi) with a drogue.
British Skydiving is the national governing body for skydiving in the United Kingdom.
Roger Warren Nelson was a skydiver and founder of Skydive Chicago, one of the largest skydiving centers in the United States.
Skydive Hibaldstow is a BS affiliated parachuting centre and skydiving drop zone at Hibaldstow, in North Lincolnshire, England.
Banzai skydiving is a rumored form of skydiving in which the skydiver throws their parachute out the airplane door, waits, and then jumps after it. To be successful, the skydiver must catch the parachute, secure it, and glide to the projected landing zone. There is no known, credible evidence that a banzai skydive has ever really occurred according to its definition.
Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes.
A big way is a type of formation skydiving involving a large group of skydivers coming together while in freefall to form a specific and predetermined formation. All the skydivers involved aim to connect with each other and hold the complete formation for a designated period.
Roberta Mancino is an Italian skydiver, BASE jumper, wingsuit flyer and international model. She has participated in more than 12,500 skydives and won several awards and world records. She has gone on four skydives while completely naked, and on five occasions her parachute did not open in mid-jump. In 2010, Mancino was named the World's Sexiest Female Athlete by the magazine Men's Fitness.
Chris "Douggs" McDougall has a career spanning 25 years as a professional skydiver, BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot. He works globally as a keynote speaker and is also founder of the largest BASE jump school "Learn to BASE jump".
Skydive Empuriabrava is the brand that has been commercially operating Empuriabrava Aerodrome since 1985. Since it began operating its main activity has been skydiving although it also offers photo flights, aerial and tourist advertising, and runs a school of aviation for private pilots.
H. Truesdell Smith—known variously as "H. T. Smith", "Henry Truesdell Smith", "Harold Truesdell Smith", or "Daredevil Smitty" but best known as "Smitty the Jumper"—was an American exhibition parachutist and skydiver of the 1920s and 1930s—who made periodic returns to skydiving starting in the late 1950s, jumping in every subsequent decade until his death—becoming widely known as "the oldest living skydiver", a title he claimed until his death in 1995 at the age of 96.
Leo Dickinson is a British cameraman, director and adventurer. He has made 68 films, winning every major mountain and adventure film award. Dickinson specialises in mountain, ballooning, skydiving and underwater films. During his mountaineering career, Dickinson has filmed climbs on a number of mountains including Mount Everest, Cima Grande di Laveredo, Civetta, Piz Badille, Matterhorn North Face, Eiger North Face, Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, and in 1991 filmed the first ever hot air balloon ascent over Everest. Dickinson has authored three books detailing stories of his career: Filming the Impossible, Anything is Possible and Ballooning over Everest. Dickinson is renowned for his use of unique camera angles and holds several world records, including as skydiving into the world's highest platform. Dickinson is a keen skydiver, with over 3500 skydives completed, and holds numerous records, including skydiving with the largest single number of naked women at one time.
Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld or Dan BC is a six-time world champion skydiver and a motivational speaker.
Jeff "Jeffro" Provenzano is an American professional skydiver, wingsuit flyer, BASE jumper, HALO jumper and stuntman. He is a member of the Red Bull Air Force, and is considered to be a pioneer of the skydiving discipline of swooping.
Diana K. Rowland is an author, cross-cultural training pioneer, and professional skydiver.
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