James A. Bristol

Jim has more than three decades of drug discovery, research and development at major pharmaceutical companies and continues to advise life science companies on optimizing efficiency and effectiveness of drug discovery and preclinical development, including early evaluation, adoption and integration of new technologies and state-of-the-art medicinal chemistry. Jim currently serves as Chairman of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, member of the Board of Directors of Cadent Therapeutics, Senior Advisor to Frazier Healthcare Partners, and Scientific Advisory Board Member for Karus Therapeutics. He previously served as a board member for Ignyta. During his industry career, Jim most recently held the role of Senior Vice President, Worldwide Drug Discovery Research for Pfizer Global Research & Development, where he was responsible for more than 3,000 scientists at seven Pfizer sites in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. Under his leadership, Pfizer’s scientists and collaborators produced an industry-leading number of drug development candidates in 11 therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Pfizer, Jim held positions of increasing responsibility in Chemistry and Drug Discovery at Parke-Davis. Earlier in his career, Jim spent six years in the Chemistry Department at Schering-Plough as a Principal Scientist. Jim has served in numerous officer positions in the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry and was Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Gordon Conference on Medicinal Chemistry, Co-Chair of Keystone Conference, Adjunct Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan and Editor-in-Chief of the ACS Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Michigan and The Squibb Institute for Medical Research. He holds a B.S. in chemistry from Bates College and received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire.