Meet the Team

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  • Co-Founder & CEO

    Bill Furman is the Co-Founder and CEO of James-Furman & Company, an LLC based in Nevada with offices in Zephyr Cove, Nevada and Lake Oswego, Oregon.  Mr. Furman co-founded and served as a board member of The Greenbrier Companies, Inc., NYSE GBX (“Greenbrier”) since 1981 and as Greenbrier’s Chief Executive Officer since taking it public in 1994. He served as its CEO and Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors for many years until 2022 and as a Board member until January 2024. He has been associated with Greenbrier and its predecessor companies since 1974.

    Furman led Greenbrier through geometric growth during his tenure, including international expansion on four continents, as well as transforming its market offerings and market share to become the leading freight car builder in North America, offering a broad range of services with engineering, manufacturing, leasing, repair, and freight car management. Currently, Greenbrier provides management services to over 400,000 freight cars of the approximate 1,600,000 in the North American freight car fleet.

    Prior to 1974, Mr. Furman was Group Vice President for the Leasing Group of TransPacific Financial Corporation, a publicly traded company based in Portland, Oregon. Earlier he was General Manager of the Finance Division of FMC Corporation, at FMC’s executive offices in San Jose, California. Mr. Furman also served as a Director of Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc., now Radius Recycling, a steel recycling and manufacturing company, from September 1993 to January 2016.

    Mr. Furman earned two degrees from Washington State University. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and was voted Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He then earned his Master’s degree in Transportation Economics. Mr. Furman also held a civil service appointment as a GS-6 smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and served in this capacity as an airborne wild-land firefighter for six summers, while putting himself through university.

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  • Executive Assistant

    Elise Kinder has been an executive assistant at James-Furman & Company's Lake Oswego, Oregon office since March 2023. Over her 30-year career, she has supported high-level executives and boards of directors, and has experience in office management and event planning.

    Elise completed her MBA and BA at the University of Portland (Portland, OR). She also holds certifications in Human Resources from Portland State University (Portland, OR) and Wine Studies from Linfield University (McMinnville, OR).

    Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Elise has also spent time living and working in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California areas. In her free time, she and her husband enjoy traveling as much as possible, and when at home, they take advantage of the bounty the beautiful Pacific Northwest has to offer.

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  • Business Analyst

    Hannah L. Crummé has been a business analyst at James-Furman & Company since 2023. She completed her doctoral research at King's College, London in 2015 and her Master's in 2010 at the same institution, and received her BA from Pomona College in 2008.

    Prior to joining James-Furman & Company, Hannah had experience as a department head at Lewis & Clark's Watzek Library, where she was in charge of the Rare Books and Archives team.

    An Oregon native, Hannah and her little dog Fred are based in James-Furman & Company's offices in Lake Oswego, where they enjoy workdays punctuated by afternoon walks.

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  • Controller

    Erin is an Oregon CPA and graduate of Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science degree.  She began her career with international public accounting firm Deloitte in 1999, specializing in tax compliance, trusts and estates, and work with high net-worth individuals and closely held businesses.

    In 2004, Erin left Deloitte to form her own consulting and accountancy firm, specializing in work with high net-worth individuals, closely held business clients, and in tax and estate planning.

    Erin enjoys solving problems, creating systems and processes that are effective and efficient and helping clients further their goals.

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  • Legal Counsel

    Jim is an attorney with 49 years of practice on (primarily) federal public policy matters.  He was born and raised in Oregon, but has spent a significant portion of his career in Washington, D.C.  Following graduation from Oregon State and the University of Oregon School of Law, Jim began his legal career as a natural resource attorney at the U.S. Department of Interior.  He moved up to Capitol Hill where he served as Rep. Al Ullman’s legislative director and on the professional staff of the House Committee on Ways & Means, which Ullman chaired (Jim also has an LLM in tax law from Georgetown).

    Jim began his private practice in 1981, opening a Portland branch office for Garvey Schubert Adams & Barer.  Seven years later, he opened a Washington, D.C. branch for Ball Janik & Novack, continuing his commute between Portland and D.C.

    After 27 years as a partner at Ball Janik, Jim was a founding partner of Summit Strategies, where he continues his work on economic development, transportation, tax, trade, and natural resource matters.

    In 2005, Mr. Beall received the “Best of the Bar” Award in Government Law from the Portland Business Journal, based on a peer survey of Portland’s legal community.  He has also earned the AV® PreeminentTM Rating from MartindaleHubbell®, American Registry.