Dr. Collard has over three decades of experience in economic and industrial development in both the public and private sectors.  He currently serves as a Vice-chair of the International Inter-tribal Trade and Investment Organization and on the Board of Directors for the Forum for International Trade Training.  Jim is a Fellow and served for eight years on the Board of Directors for the International Economic Development Council. Dr. Collard has been a featured speaker during multiple World Indigenous Business Forums and for the last ten years has served as a Professor of Practice in the graduate program in Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma.  

During his seventeen-year tenure with the Citizen Potawatomi Nation he conceived, designed, and led the team that developed the Iron Horse Industrial Park, the first Foreign Trade Zone on Native American Trust land with activated sites.