Jim Yardley has been an advertising executive for more than thirty years in Chicago. He has worked at five of the top ten ad agencies in the world, servicing global clients including P&G, Quaker Oats, Kraft, General Mills, Bristol Myers, and Ford as well as US clients including Sears, Midas, United Health, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

For the past ten years, Jim has run his own firm, FYi Advertising, which specializes in major academic hospitals such as Duke Medicine, Barnes Jewish Health, Northshore Health, Froedtert, and the Mayo Clinic. Jim has also started and currently leads two other companies – KeyMaster Solutions for the automotive industry and Project “Hands Off,” a community-based program dedicated to ending distracted driving.

Jim is married with two grown children. He and his wife have lived in Wilmette for more than thirty years.

In (year), Jim spent nine months being sent from doctor to doctor as they experimented with treatments for an undiagnosed condition. That’s when Jim went to Northwestern Medical. Northwestern was able to immediately diagnose Jim with liver failure and connect him with a transplant team.

Jim recalls, “Within a few weeks they found a match and I underwent a liver transplant. Dr. Granger and his team saved my life with their experience and expertise.”

As a member of the NMTAC board, Jim wants to help raise funds and raise awareness amongst Northwestern Medical’s senior management about the amazing value that the Transplant Center has for both the future of medicine and the Northwestern Memorial Brand. “I’d also like to get Dan Dickinson on the cover of TIME as the world’s greatest non-profit fundraising leader!” Jim added.

Jim firmly believes that Northwestern Medical’s transplant research is critical to pioneering breakthroughs in cellular regeneration and immunotherapies that will help transform healthcare around the world.