Biography
Jim is Founder & President of the KeePressingOn Project founded in October 2019 to serve businesses, teams, and executives seeking to generate growth and increase productivity. Having leveraged his ability to coach, motivate and inspire individuals, and his passion for community impact and involvement, Jim enables his KeePressingOn Project clients to achieve peak performance and overcome key challenges by providing strategic consulting, coaching for teams, and executive coaching services. Jim also helps establish and enhance relationships that build trust, encourage a culture of excellence, and create an expectant, positive view of the future. In October 2020, he founded James Coltarp Policy Solutions to help companies/industries to meet regulatory/government-related needs and to respond to critical issues/policy projects by advising on public policy strategy and creating effective and reasonable solutions for today’s competitive environment. The two companies work in tandem, reinforce each other and support excellent execution.
A former federal government-affairs executive and strategist with Comcast, Jim has 20+ years of experience leading policy strategy development and key victories in regulatory policy proceedings, transactions and acquisitions, and contributed to Comcast’s growth.
Jim joined Comcast in 1997 as a Sr Director, Public Policy. He became Chief Policy Advisor, FCC & Regulatory Policy and then Executive Director, and represented Comcast before the FCC, Congress, and other federal agencies concerning cable TV, programming content, and equipment technology matters. He contributed to earning and building Comcast’s credibility in the eyes of regulators and the public, especially during key earlier years. Serving as key contact to trade associations, Jim represented Comcast in many industry matters and initiatives. He helped enhance Comcast’s reputation in the industry through leading teams working on engineering policy issues that had significant consumer and viewer impact, and helped guide major community outreach programs. Among his other accomplishments: Jim helped accelerate profits and establish Comcast as the country's largest cable operator through early policy strategy development; led his team to an exceptional run of major victories on issues before the FCC over 9-years; and mitigated potential risk of regulatory proceedings and legislative hearings.
His expertise in FCC-related matters, grew at Miami University, Oxford, OH, as a Visiting Instructor, and was further strengthened following his appointment as an FCC Industry Economist, Broadcasting/Cable (1990 – 1993). In this role, he led a team of attorneys in implementing key provisions of the 1992 Cable Act. Serving FCC commissioners James Quello and Andrew Barrett as special advisor (1993 -1997), he crafted policy positions, represented them on policy matters and rulemakings and received special commendations from them for his work. He was the principal author of five Commission broadcasting/cable rules. He also served as Chief Economist, Wireless Telecommunications, 1995- 1996.
Jim’s commitment to seek positive changes enabled successful community and customer initiatives. He helped develop/execute Comcast’s outreach; raised government/family awareness of parental control capability; and led a regulatory team in developing media and Internet tools to enhance accessibility for sight/hearing-impaired communities. Jim helped develop corporate initiatives to create digital technology opportunities, community/school partnerships, enhancing Comcast’s employees’ community engagement. He founded Bright Lights Tutoring (1993-2011) for 4 – 6th grade students in Washington, DC, where he created/funded a special reading library, recruited/coached volunteer tutors, and led school events.
He has a BA and MA in Economics from Miami University, received the International Coaching Federation Executive Coach certification in 2019, is a member of industry/community organizations. Jim teamed with his partner for numerous national Dancesport pro-am competition major titles from 2007 to 2019, including Top Gold Gentleman for the DanceVision Circuit, 2018 – 2019 season.