James Thiele earned a bachelor's degree in management from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a master's degree in business administration from DeVry University's Keller Graduate School of Management.

James’ campaign for Jasper County Board of Education District 3 is his first run for public office.

James currently works as head of revenue operations at Curve Dental, a dental software company. He previously worked as head of growth at Checkmate, a technology company, and as senior vice president of operations at Qu POS, a point-of-sale systems company.