James Porter, PhD

Jim is an accomplished cancer researcher with two decades of oncology drug development experience. He joined Nuvalent during company creation in 2018 and became Chief Executive Officer and named to the Nuvalent Board of Directors in January 2020.

Jim began his career at Infinity Pharmaceuticals as one of the initial scientists to join the company in its first year of operation. Over the course of his 15 years at Infinity, he obtained a wide array of company building experience, helping to build the infrastructure and leading high-performing teams in medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical development, alliance management, program management, and product development. At Infinity, he contributed to the research and development programs of six different compounds entering clinical trials, helped secure business development agreements and lead corporate alliances for multiple development compounds, and held increasing roles of responsibility up to Vice President of Product Development. As the duvelisib Product Development team leader, Jim led a cross-functional development team from development candidate nomination through NDA submission, resulting in the FDA approval of COPIKTRA® for patients with follicular lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Jim led the transition, Product Development team, and NDA submission at Verastem Oncology upon the company’s acquisition of the duvelisib program during Phase 3 clinical development. He earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Boston College.