Jim Justice

Mr. Justice is the founder of the James C. Justice Companies, in Lake City, S.C., which own resorts and coal-mining operations. Mr. Justice, and his wife, Cathy, pledged $25-million to the Boy Scouts of America to create the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, a 10,600-acre park in West Virginia. The organization did not disclose a payment schedule. Mr. Justice also pledged $10-million over 10 years to Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the entrepreneurial arm of the Cleveland Clinic. The donation will be evenly split to establish a chair in medical innovation and to carry out programs to foster creative thought and idea exchange in medical innovation. Justice, 58, attended Raleigh County Schools. He attended the University of Tennessee on a golf scholarship. Later, he transferred to Marshall University, where he was captain of the golf team his last two years. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Marshall. Following the death of Justice's father in 1993, Justice became president and chief executive officer of Bluestone Industries Inc. and Bluestone Coal Corp. In 2003, he established James C. Justice Companies Inc. to acquire additional mining operations. The business moved into Kentucky in 2007, Tennessee last year and, most recently, into Wise County, Va. It was Bluestone Industries and related companies' West Virginia mining interests that Justice recently sold to the Russian company. Justice married Cathy Comer in 1976 in Beckley. They have two children, James (Jay) C. Justice III and Jill. Jay is a 2003 graduate of Virginia Tech and is executive vice president of James C. Justice Companies Inc. Jill is a graduate of Marshall and is enrolled in medical school at Virginia Tech. Jim Justice sold all of his company's West Virginia coal interests to the Russian company, Mechel OAO, in May 2009, for $436 million in cash and 83.3 million Mechel preferred shares. Justice made headlines later that year when he snatched the iconic Greenbrier resort from Marriott, paying $20.1 million. The property was hemorrhaging a reported $1 million a week and on the verge of bankruptcy when Justice stepped in. Born and raised in Raleigh County, W.V., Justice received his undergraduate and MBA degrees from Marshall University before joining his father's coal mining outfit in 1976. Shortly after arriving at Bluestone Industries, Justice launched Bluestone Farms, a commercial grain farming operation. After his father's death in 1993, Justice became President and CEO of Bluestone and expanded the firm by rapidly acquiring new coal reserves. Today the rebranded Justice Companies maintains coal operations in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia and active farmland in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and South Carolina. A former Boy Scout, Justice gave $25 million to the Boy Scouts of America in 2011 to support the creation of a 10,600-acre land reserve near his home in West Virginia. One of the reserve's parks will be named for Justice's father. Justice enjoys hunting, coaching the girls' basketball team at his local high school, and dining at Appleby's. Justice took over coaching duties for the boys' team as well, starting with the 2011-2012 season.