Jim Kimsey

Kimsey was born in Washington D.C. in 1939 and grew up in Arlington, Virginia.

After being dismissed from Gonzaga College High School, he attended St. John's College High School, followed by Georgetown University for one term on an honors scholarship, and then the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from which he graduated in 1962.

In 1970, after eight years in the military, Kimsey bought a building in downtown Washington, D.C., renting out the top floor. On the ground floor, he built and opened a bar known as The Exchange. He "became successful and opened other bars in the 1970s."

In May 1983, Kimsey was brought in as a manufacturing consultant for Control Video Corporation by his West Point friend Frank Caufield, an investor in the company. CVC was founded by William von Meister to market an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console. Von Meister had previously hired Steve Case as a marketing consultant on the recommendation of Case's brother, investment banker Dan Case. Von Meister quietly left the company in early 1985.

Shortly thereafter, Control Video was reorganized as Quantum Computer Services, with co-founders Kimsey as CEO, Marc Seriff as CTO, and Steve Case. Quantum Computer Services was later reorganized as AOL. Kimsey served as CEO until 1995, when Steve Case took the helm.

Kimsey was a key investor in, and a director of Triple Canopy, a private military contractor.

Kimsey was Chairman Emeritus of Refugees International, an independent advocacy group that works to protect refugees and end the cause of displacement. Kimsey also was a member of the board of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and as a Senior Fellow to the Department of Defense Business Board.

He was a member of the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. In 2010, Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Kimsey to the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board, which oversees the investment of all gifts for the benefit of the Library’s collection and services. He served on the Executive Committee of the National Symphony Orchestra.

His philanthropic endeavors also included the Kimsey Athletic Center at West Point, which he established in 1995. Kimsey also funded internships for military academy students through the Kimsey Scholarship. Cadets and midshipmen from West Point, the Air Force Academy, and the Naval Academy were competitively selected to serve in significant offices of government such as the Supreme Court, State Department, and Congress through the scholarship.