May 25, 2017
James E. (Jim) Audia, PhD to become Executive Director of CBC as Katie Stallcup Retires
Jim Audia (right), currently Chief Scientific Officer of Constellation Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will become Executive Director of the CBC effective August 1, 2017.
Jim has had a long and distinguished career in the pharmaceutical industry. After earning a PhD from the University of South Carolina and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University, Jim joined Eli Lilly in 1987 where he served in a variety of research and management positions for 24 years. He rose to the level of Executive Director of Lilly Research Laboratories and co-led Lilly’s portfolio governance committee. In 2005 he was promoted to Distinguished Lilly Scholar, the highest rung of the scientific career ladder at Lilly. Upon his retirement from Lilly in 2010, Jim was among the most prolific inventors in the Company’s history, with more than 90 issued patents at that time (now exceeding 100). In 2011 he joined Constellation Pharmaceuticals. Under Jim’s leadership, Constellation translated its expertise in transcriptional control into a robust portfolio of candidate drugs to treat hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Jim will join Constellation’s Board of Directors and will also serve as a scientific advisor. Additionally, Jim will remain as a member of the Chemistry Advisory Board of SAGE Therapeutics, and the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Tau Consortium of the Rainwater Charitable Foundation and Ribon Therapeutics.
Jim’s wealth of experience in both large and small pharma is the ideal qualification to lead the CBC into Phase 2, with its increased emphasis on developing therapeutics and encouraging entrepreneurship. CBC Scientific Directors, Rick Morimoto (NU), Brian Kay (UIC) and Lucy Godley (UChicago), jointly and enthusiastically affirmed:
“We are delighted and excited to have Jim come on board as the new CBC Executive Director. Jim brings expertise and deep knowledge of drug discovery, as well as connections to an outstanding network of relationships with the pharma, biotech, and biotech investment communities. In addition to his scientific credentials, Jim has a deep commitment to strengthening and expanding the Chicago biomedical ecosystem. We have every confidence that Jim will continue his track record of success and will provide excellent leadership as the CBC pursues its ambitious goals for Phase 2.”
Dr. Audia succeeds Dr. Kathryn C. (Katie) Stallcup, who will retire in September. Katie has served as Executive Director since the CBC’s launch in 2006. Her work on CBC actually started prior to the CBC’s launch: as Director of Foundation Relations at NU, she participated in the development of the CBC concept and helped write the proposal that led to Phase 1 funding. In the ensuing years, she has guided the organization as the “CBC Family” has grown to include hundreds of researchers and administrators at the CBC universities working together in a variety of collaborative endeavors.
“Katie has the remarkable gift of being able to listen to a wide array of people with different backgrounds and priorities, and weaving those conversations together into a coherent plan for a multi-institution collaboration. Katie, in her calm and understated way, has turned the idea of the CBC into a reality that is generating enormous benefits for all the participants,” said Dan Linzer, Provost of Northwestern.
Indeed, in the past decade, the CBC has made almost 300 merit-based awards. Researchers and projects funded by the CBC have earned $514 million in additional funding and generated over 1,700 publications. Katie’s most recent contribution to the CBC has been helping to envision an expanded mission for the CBC, securing funding for Phase 2 (2017-2021), and recruiting new leadership for the next stage of the enterprise.
“We are so thankful to Katie for her graceful stewardship of this organization during its first 10 years,” said Lucy Godley, CBC Scientific Director at UChicago. “Katie has positioned the CBC to be a critical entity for faculty and trainees at the three academic institutions, and Jim will be able to use that infrastructure to expand the programming to increase applications of the exciting basic research findings being discovered at each of our respective institutions.”
The CBC staff joins in expressing a heartfelt THANK YOU to Katie for her expert leadership, her contagious passion for and belief in the CBC mission, daily mentoring and encouragement, and most of all, for her unparalleled friendship over the years. Katie will be dearly missed and the CBC wishes her all the best in her future endeavors.
All of us at CBC look forward to welcoming Jim in August and working with him to develop and implement new initiatives that will foster entrepreneurship, encourage drug development, and strengthen the Chicago biomedical ecosystem.
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