Jim Blair, Ph.D., Partner

Jim Blair, Ph.D.

Jim has been a partner of Domain since its inception in 1985. Jim has more than 45 years of experience with venture and emerging growth companies.

The thing that makes my job so satisfying is that the products our companies are creating really make a difference in people’s lives.

In the course of his experience, he has been involved in the creation and successful development at the board level of more than 40 life sciences ventures, including Amgen, Aurora Biosciences, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Dura Pharmaceuticals, NuVasive, Pharmion and Volcano. Present board memberships include InflammX Therapeutics and Ocunexus Therapeutics.

Prior to Domain, Jim was a former managing director of Rothschild Inc., where he was directly involved at a senior level with Rothschild/New Court venture capital activities. Previous to that, he was associated with F.S. Smithers and Co. and White, Weld and Co., two investment banking firms actively involved with new ventures and emerging growth companies. Jim was an engineering manager with RCA Corporation, during which time he received the David Sarnoff Fellowship. He received his BSE from Princeton University and his MSE and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jim currently serves as Board Chairman of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. He previously served on the advisory boards of the Prostate Cancer Foundation,  the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and the Caltech Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.