James “Jim” Duffy has been a resident of Orange County for more than 12 years and has lived in Florida since moving to Winter Haven with his mother and brother at age 10. He graduated from Winter Haven Senior High School in 1991 and attended both Florida State University and Florida Southern College. Jim studied Economics at FSU and holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Florida Southern.
Jim and his wife, Jody, met at the wedding of mutual friends. Jody was the Matron of Honor and Jim was a Groomsman. Jim and Jody live in the Conway area of Orlando, where Jody has lived most of her life, graduating from Boone High School. They have three children; Kaitlyn, Haylee and Colby.
Jim’s background includes thirteen years in accounting; auditing (both internal and external), general ledger accounting and tax preparation. Jim has experience evaluating and making recommendations to improve and implement processes to produce efficiencies through automation, elimination of redundancies and unnecessary practices, and reduction of labor costs. Jim’s experiences also encompass the hospitality industry, with thirteen years in the restaurant business with a strong focus on customer service. Jim currently works for the largest privately held hotel company in the state where his review of his department’s processes led to hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings per year for the company. Jim’s efforts have also created much more efficient and structured processes and policies.
Jim believes in limited government and believes that all elected positions should be subject to term limits. Jim’s greatest inspiration in politics was Ronald Reagan, “One of my earliest memories is of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. I remember watching him with one hand up in the air and the other on the Bible taking the oath of office. I was eight years old. I remember thinking that this man was someone special. He had an immediate impact on me,” said Jim.
Jim’s community involvement includes serving as past Treasurer of the Academy for Autism, a school his daughter, Kaitlyn attended for several years. Kaitlyn has autism and currently attends Magnolia School, a terrific school for children with special needs. Jim is the founder and President of Helping Central Florida, a non-profit organization created to help people in need of medical equipment and supplies in Central Florida. “I wanted to do something to help people in need. The best way I could think of to have a direct impact on the lives of Central Florida residents was to create Helping Central Florida,” Jim stated
