Jim Van Eerden is a Co-founder and Managing Director of The Helixx Group, a merchant bank for high-impact entrepreneurs that is based in Indianapolis. Jim heads up the firm’s media and philanthropy ventures. His commentary involving media and non-profit work has appeared in USA TODAY and other publications, and he has been a speaker at the National Press Club and forums internationally, including a recent guest lectureship at Harvard on the subject of “Philanthropy 2.0.”
Jim first became involved in film investing with the Academy Award nominated short film, MOST (2004). He has since served in Executive Producer roles for several award-winning feature films – including Bobby Jones (2004), The Ultimate Gift (2007) and The Perfect Game (2010), and for the highly acclaimed documentary feature films, WarChild (2008) and Running the Sahara (2009), which he executive produced with Matt Damon. He is currently in production on a documentary called In God We Still Trust, and is Chief Editor of Life(n) Media.
Jim’s work in philanthropy has involved him in numerous board roles. Together with Mia Hamm, Steve Nash, Serena Williams and others, he co-founded and is on the Board of MISSION Products, the world’s leading athlete-engineered skincare company. He has served as Board Chairman for The H2O Africa Foundation (a large-scale water charity campaign), and as a founding Board Director for BDA Foundation (a non-profit effort to advance biotechnology for sustainable development in Africa). He has also served as a member of the Board of Governors for Opportunity International (the world””s largest faith-based micro-lending agency), and for Wilberforce Forum (Chuck Colson””s worldview ministry) – for whom he originated Colson’s nationwide “Centurions Fellowship.”
Jim graduated from Grove City College in 1985. He later completed the MA program in philosophy at Trinity International University, a graduate study program at Oxford University (St. Peter””s College), and the MBA program at Wake Forest University. He is presently a candidate for a doctoral degree in Education at Gordon Conwell. He and his wife Rachel have eleven children and live on a family homestead near Greensboro, North Carolina.
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