I have worked regularly with James Barton (Jim) since 2010 when he was a senior executive at Head Office with Bausch + Lomb. We concluded a significant contact lens technology licensing deal and I found him to be a tough negotiator but utterly professional and fair throughout. Signing the deal is only really the beginning and his subsequent teamwork, particularly the understanding and skills to integrate teams from companies of vastly different sizes, is excellent.

Jim’s transition into an independent consultant has been tremendous. We have appointed Jim and worked with him on a number of projects. I have experience working with Jim being on both the buy-side and sell-side on different projects and whilst that typically takes different skillsets, Jim is most proficient at both. He never confuses relationships and fully respects potential conflicts of interest, and protecting Intellectual Property.

One recent project concerns specific market research in a highly specialized area. Jim is well known and respected in the contact lens world so was able to access high level decision makers across the industry to gauge interest. He has given us additional bandwidth and accelerated our ‘Go, No Go’ decisions in a cost-effective manner.

We continue to run projects with Jim and will undoubtedly add more. The move from working with global players to smaller niche companies is an area where many senior executives fail as they have to think and act in a more ‘hands on’ manner as opposed to delegating and directing to their larger base of colleagues. Their competencies need to be wider. Jim bridges those gaps really well so I recommend him without doubt.

—J Keith Lomas
Group President & CEO
UltraVision CLPL