Terry McGuire

Terry McGuire is a founding partner of Polaris Partners and brings more than 25 years of early-stage investing experience in medical and information technology companies. Prior to starting Polaris in 1996, he worked at Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. investing in early-stage medical and information technology companies. He began his career in venture capital at Golder, Thoma, and Cressey in Chicago. Mr. McGuire co-founded three companies, including Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (public and sold to Merck) and AIR (sold to Alkermes, Inc.). He has received multiple awards and recognitions, including being listed as one of Scientific American’s Worldview 100 in 2015 (visionaries who continue to reshape biotechnology and the world) and the Irish America Healthcare & Life Sciences 50 Award in 2014. In addition, Mr. McGuire was one of Forbes’ Top Life Sciences Investors in 2013 and named one of Forbes’ Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors in 2011. He is a recipient of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award, and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences, awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and Canisius College for his work in translational science. Mr. McGuire is emeritus chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), which represents ninety percent of the venture capitalists in the United States. He chairs the board of the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College. He sits on the boards of MIT’s The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School (HBS), and The Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS). Mr. McGuire holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in engineering from The Thayer School at Dartmouth College, and a BS in physics and economics from Hobart College.