Jim Tananbaum

Jim Tananbaum is the founder and CEO of Foresite Capital, a U.S.-focused healthcare investment firm founded in 2011 with approximately $3.5B in assets under management. Jim assembles the people, ideas and money needed to launch products that save lives and improve healthcare. During the last three decades Jim has been a thought partner for some of the most impactful and fastest growth companies of their generation including: 10x Genomics (Nasdaq: TXG), Amerigroup (Nasdaq: ANTM), and Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ).Jim graduated from Yale with a BS and BSEE in Applied Math and Electrical Engineering/Computer Science. He then earned an MD from Harvard, graduating from the Harvard/MIT HST Program. He also earned an MBA from Harvard while playing rugby. Jim’s entrepreneurial experience began while still at Harvard Business School when he co-founded GelTex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:GENZ). For less than $80M in funding, GelTex brought two drugs to market, and the company was acquired in 1999 for $1.4B. Jim was also the founding chief executive of Theravance, Inc. Under his tenure he raised over $350M. Theravance has since split into two parts, one of which is now part of GSK’s respiratory franchise through a joint venture, Innoviva (Nasdaq: INVA), and the other was spun out into Theravance Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBPH). Together, they achieved a market capitalization that exceeded $4B.Jim was a co-founder of Prospect Ventures, and earlier in his career, a partner of Sierra Ventures, where he established its healthcare services investment practice.