Robert I. Blum

Robert I. Blum is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cytokinetics, a position he has held since January 2007. He also serves on the company's Board of Directors.

Career

Beginning in 1981, Blum held roles in sales, marketing, and other functions at Marion Laboratories and Syntex Corporation.

Blum joined COR Therapeutics in 1988 where he served as Director of Marketing until 1991 and Director of Business Development from 1991 to 1996.

In 1998, Blum participated in the launch of operations of Cytokinetics. He held positions of increasing responsibility, overseeing various functions, including research and development, finance, corporate development, legal, commercial operations, and business development, until he was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2007. Since 2007, Blum has also served as a member of the Cytokinetics Board of Directors.

Education

Blum holds B.A. degrees in Human Biology and Economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Philanthropy

Blum established the Blum Family Venture Philanthropy Fund to help advance science discoveries that benefit the Israeli life sciences economy. He also founded the Tikkun Olam Youth Science Prizes in middle schools and high schools in the Bay Area. Blum has served on the boards of several organizations, including the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum, the San Francisco Anti-Defamation League, the National Board of the American Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, where he helped found its Business Leadership Council.

Blum was named a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Blum taught a graduate course in corporate finance at University of California, San Francisco, while serving on the faculty at the Center for BioEntrepreneurship. He also co-chaired the BIO Business Development Committee and lectures on topics related to business development and finance in the biopharmaceutical industry.