James M. Godec
James M. Godec is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Overland Capital Group, Inc. ("Overland"). Mr. Godec founded Overland in October, 2001. Mr. Godec is also President of Overland's four operating businesses, Overland Leasing Group LLC, Overland Asset Management LLC, Overland Development Group LLC and Overland Realty Capital LLC. Mr. Godec also serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S.-Bahrain Business Council ("USBBC") which was formed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September 2006 to facilitate business between Bahrain and the United States. Mr. Godec was Chairman of the USBBC from 2006 through 2010. Mr. Godec has an established reputation in the international investment banking community and has orchestrated the investment of over US$700 Million of equity in over US$2.0 Billion worth of U.S. real estate, equipment leasing and other assets over the past 12 years. Mr. Godec has worked in the U.S. real estate industry for over 23 years and the U.S. equipment leasing industry for over 11 years. Mr. Godec has also been instrumental over the past 12 years in expanding the use of Sharia'a compliant financing structures by U.S. financial institutions, including GECC, JPMorganChase and KeyBank.
From 1998 through 2001 Mr. Godec was Managing Director of Key Global Capital, Inc. ("KGC"), a subsidiary of KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY). Mr. Godec joined KGC at its inception in June 1998, and raised significant amounts of capital from non-U.S. investors for investment in U.S. commercial real estate and equipment leases. From 1991 to 1998, Mr. Godec was an attorney at Bernkopf Goodman LLP, a real estate law firm in Boston, Massachusetts. Previously, Mr. Godec was an attorney at Goodwin Proctor LLP, a prominent U.S. based international law firm.
Mr. Godec holds a B.A. (with distinction) in Middle Eastern Studies and General and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School. While at the University of Virginia, Mr. Godec studied Islam and Islamic history, Arabic and Farsi.
Mr. Godec has extensive expertise working with European and Gulf-based financial institutions in structuring their U.S. investments in accordance with Sharia'a principles.
