Dr. Newsam has had operational management responsibilities for groups of up to 70 PhDs, through a series of executive or senior operational positions at Biosym Technologies, Molecular Simulations (now DS Biovia (Accelrys)), hte, fqubed and Exxon Research and Engineering Company. A business innovator and entrepreneur, Dr, Newsam serves as Adjunct Professor at UC San Diego (Chemistry & Biochemistry Department) where he teaches undergraduate courses in biotechnology, business innovation and entrepreneurship. Some of his views on entrepreneurship are presented in his 2014 TEDx talk ‘Entrepreneurship is learnt’.
As a professional consultant, John has contributed scientific and strategic input to several US Fortune500 companies, to early phase biotech and materials companies in the US, UK and Korea, to government institutions such as IFP Energies Nouvelles in Paris, and he has served on numerous academic advisory committees. He is Chair-Elect of the Section on Industrial Science and Technology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (“AAAS”), Chair of the Advisory Board of the Computational Science Research Center at San Diego State University, and Vice President of the Bird Rock Community Council.
Dr. Newsam has served or serves as a Venture Partner or Advisor to three other private equity groups: NGEN Venture Partners (Santa Barbara CA and NY), ITI Life Sciences (Scotland) and the Green Gateway Fund (Berlin, Germany).
Dr. Newsam has lectured extensively on an international level, and been recognized by several awards, including the Corday-Morgan Medal and the Sidhu Award, and by election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and of the AAAS.
John M Newsam holds BA Hons, MA and DPhil degrees in Chemistry from Oxford University and was a JSPS - Royal Society research fellow at Tohoku University, Japan. A materials chemist by formal training, John has authored over 170 scientific publications and is an inventor on over 20 issued US patents. He was previously an Adjunct Professor at UC Santa Barbara (Materials Department).