James Niedel is a Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners, a firm that invests in life science companies. Prior to joining the venture industry in 2002, Jim was Chief Science and Technology Officer for GlaxoSmithKline and from 1995 to 2001 he was a member of the board of directors of Glaxo Wellcome plc with responsibility for Global Research and Development, Information Technology and Product Strategy. From 1988 to 1995 he was VP Research and SVP R&D for the US subsidiary of Glaxo. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Jim was Professor of Medicine and Chief of the division of Clinical Pharmacology at Duke Medical School, where he had completed an Internal Medicine residency and a Hematology-Oncology fellowship. He received the M.D. and Ph.D. (Biochemistry) degrees from the University of Miami, was a Searle Scholar, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London).