Career highlights

James Bower is Commercial Director for Williams Racing, having joined the team in 2021.

James began his career in enterprise IT sales at Hewlett Packard during their title partnership with Williams, which he activated with blue-chip corporate customers. He also spent time at Bang & Olufsen as well as Software AG.

James’ first role in Formula One came in Partner Management at McLaren in 2007, working on the title partnership with Vodafone. James progressed through partner management, leading partnerships with brands such as GSK, FedEx, and Gillette, and attended over 120 Formula One GPs. In 2017, while Director of Brand Partnerships, James co-created the first Esports racing tournament in Formula One and formed partnerships with Michael Kors and Logitech.

As Director of Marketing and Commercial Strategy, James was a key member of commercial the team that secured new partnerships and evaluated motorsport series outside Formula One. He also led McLaren’s first fan segmentation and brand tracking programmes that transformed McLaren’s understanding of its fanbase to inform marketing strategy and more effectively manage McLaren’s brand equity.

In his current role, James is responsible for managing and growing Williams’ commercial partner portfolio.