James Saakvitne

James Saakvitne, Treasurer of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, brings more than three decades of experience in international banking to his work supporting music and cultural institutions. His career at JPMorgan and Barclays centered on credit origination, financial management, and financing for municipalities and nonprofit organizations.

At Barclays, Saakvitne served as Managing Director and Head of Municipal Credit Origination from 2009 to 2021. His earlier responsibilities at JPMorgan included leadership of tax-exempt credit origination and work developing the bank’s private banking credit business in Southeast Asia. Before entering investment banking, he worked in nonprofit development, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Saakvitne’s service to the arts includes membership on the Musicians Foundation board, which he joined in 2025, and his appointment to Naumburg’s board in 2026. He was a founding trustee of the Frederick R. Koch Foundation, whose work supports the humanities and the preservation of historic properties, and serves as a trustee of the National Institute of Social Sciences.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history, cum laude, from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. His professional and philanthropic work brings together financial expertise, experience in nonprofit governance, and an enduring interest in classical music.