Jim is the firm’s senior economic analyst, with specialties including economic and socioeconomic impact analyses, cost/benefit analyses, business feasibility studies, community economic planning, and local, regional, and statewide economic profiles.
Since joining the firm in 1986, he has conducted socioeconomic impact analyses for a broad range of Alaska resource development projects and industries including seafood, tourism, oil and mining industries.
Jim has also conducted community-level business and economic modeling and analyses in Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kodiak, the Northwest Arctic Borough, the Southwest Alaska region, Cordova, Valdez, and virtually every community in Southeast Alaska.
Jim’s formal education includes a master’s in Mineral Economics from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He earned his undergraduate degree from Western Washington University.
He is a lifelong Alaskan, born in Ketchikan and raised in Juneau.
His community service contributions include six years on the Board of Directors for Eaglecrest Ski Area (including four years as President) and seven years on the Juneau Mountain Rescue Board of Directors. Jim currently serves as President of Eaglecrest Foundation.

Before founding AAF in 2009, Dr. Holtz-Eakin served in a variety of influential policy positions. During 2001-2002, he was the Chief Economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), where he had also served during 1989-1990 as a Senior Staff Economist. At CEA he helped to formulate policies addressing the 2000-2001 recession and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. From 2003-2005 he was the 6th Director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which provides budgetary and policy analysis to the U.S. Congress. During his tenure, CBO assisted Congress as they addressed numerous policies — notably the 2003 tax cuts (the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act), the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill (the Medicare Modernization Act), and the 2005 push for Social Security reform.

During 2007 and 2008, he was Director of Domestic and Economic Policy for the John McCain presidential campaign. After that, he was a Commissioner on the congressionally chartered Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin built an international reputation as a scholar doing research in areas of applied economic policy, econometric methods, and entrepreneurship. He began his career at Columbia University in 1985 and moved to Syracuse University from 1990 to 2001. At Syracuse, he became Trustee Professor of Economics at the Maxwell School, Chairman of the Department of Economics and Associate Director of the Center for Policy Research.

Dr. Holtz-Eakin writes a daily column in AAF’s morning newsletter, the Daily Dish, and regularly comments on current policy and political debates for a variety of news outlets.

Mr. Aaron M. Schutt serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Doyon, Limited. Mr. Schutt served as the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Doyon, Limited from 2008 to 2011. Mr. Schutt is responsible for managing and coordinating the operations of Doyon's subsidiary companies. He clerked for Alaska Supreme Court Justice Alexander Bryner. Before joining Doyon in 2006, he was an attorney at the Anchorage offices of national law firms Sonosky, ... Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson, LLP and Heller Ehrman, LLP, where he represented tribal and ANCSA corporation clients in transactional and business matters. He serves as a Director of Akeela, Inc. In 2004, Mr. Schutt was named to the Alaska Journal of Commerce's “Top 40 Under 40.”. He is an Koyukon Athabascan. He graduated from Stanford Law School. He has a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and graduated with honors and as an S. Town Stephenson scholar from Washington State University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.