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James (Jim) W. Hawkins
Partner, Focus, LLC
James (Jim) W. Hawkins, PhD, a FOCUS Partner, has been President
and CEO of five early stage biotechnology companies. Dr. Hawkins
has experience in all major areas of the biopharmaceutical industry
including: drug discovery, diagnostics, analytical instrumentation,
and specialty reagents and chemicals.
Through the process of building early
stage companies, Dr. Hawkins has been involved in the strategic
and operational aspects of founding, growing, and exiting emerging
businesses. In this regard, he has been involved in a variety of
business development and financial transactions including the acquisition
and sale of companies and the solicitation of equity and debt financing.
Formerly, Dr. Hawkins was the President
and CEO of Synthecell Corporation, a company providing the specialty
design and manufacture of nucleic acids and peptides to major international
research institutions and pharmaceutical houses for research and
clinical diagnostics applications. In conjunction with this company,
Dr. Hawkins served as President and CEO of Genetic MediSyn Corporation,
a biotechnology company specializing in the discovery of genetically
targeted therapeutics based on antisense technology.
Over the past fifteen years, Dr. Hawkins
has also served as CEO of three additional companies: Bio-Tech Imaging,
Inc., a company focused on cell-based diagnostics and the treatment
of HIV infection; Dynamic Biosciences Corp., a scientific instrument
company developing a platform technology for the characterization
of intermolecular interactions; and Prescient NeuroPharma Corp.,
a drug discovery company involved in the advancement of therapies
for neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease.
Over the past 15 years Dr. Hawkins has
also co-founded and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed
scientific journal Antisense Research and Development. He has organized
numerous scientific and business conferences and has authored several
major industry reports on gene therapy and genomics as well as numerous
scientific and industry articles on a variety of life science subjects.
Dr. Hawkins has also consulted for companies ranging in size from
startup to Fortune 500 and on projects involving business development,
technical analysis, and due diligence.
Dr. Hawkins received his baccalaureate
degree in biology from the University of Western Ontario, London,
Ontario, Canada, and his doctorate in molecular biology from Baylor
College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He conducted post-doctoral
studies at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland,
and subsequently served as an Assistant Professor at the Hébèrt
School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences, also in Bethesda, Maryland.
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