James McNamee started his career in law enforcement as a police officer for the Village of Barrington in 1979. After leaving for a short period to be a Deputy Sheriff in Los Angeles in 1982, Jim returned to the Barrington Police Department.

In 1983, he was elected to the Barrington Police Pension Board as a trustee of the fund. Upon being elected to the pension board Jim discovered that there wasn’t any training or educational associations for police pension trustees. Jim then formed the Illinois Police Pension Fund Association. In its first year Jim was able to get 50 pension funds to join. Jim then developed the training seminars and annual conferences for these trustees. Jim did this while serving as a police officer and a field training officer for his department.

In 1993, the Illinois Police Pension Fund Association became the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association. This was done at the request of the fire pension funds who wished to join the Association to benefit from its excellent training programs. Jim helped to develop the Certified Trustee Program training school for police and fire pension trustees.

Jim was instrumental in leading the push for many of the changes in pension board procedures and policies, helping to develop the standards under which they operate. He was also involved in drafting and passing important legislative changes to the laws which the pension funds operate under, including comprehensive investment law changes allowing for expanded investment authority to the pension boards.

Jim received an award from the International Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans for creating a home mortgage loan program from within the fund. Jim also helped author numerous articles, assisted in authoring the police and fire pension trustee handbooks, wrote the first participant handbook and developed the IPPFA newsletter. Under Jim’s leadership the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association has grown into the largest organization of its kind in the country.

Jim all the while continued his law enforcement career. His department recognized his unique teaching and communication skills by putting Jim in charge of developing Crime Prevention and Community programs. Jim’s first task was to develop an Internet Safety Program. The program that Jim developed received Statewide Recognition and caught the eye of Channel 5 NBC news. Jim was asked to appear live on the news anchor desk to answer call-in questions from the audience. Jim also taught his program to numerous area police departments.

Another leading program that Jim developed was Women’s Self Defense. Jim became a certified RAD instructor and is a Certified Crime Prevention Specialist. Jim was recently re-elected as President of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, the organization he founded, continuing his unbroken twenty-two years as president.