Jim Weiss, Founder & Chairman, Real Chemistry
Jim Weiss is a fan of hashtags and pithy slogans. One of his favorites: #MakeItHappen. But Jim himself is the perfect example of how to #MakeItHappen. His 36-year career is built on that principle.
At Genentech, which he joined at the dawn of biotechs in the early ’90s, Jim helped launch Activase, a clot-dissolving tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) approved to treat stroke (prior to the invention of stents). His work involved an early example of pharmacoeconomics as the company partnered with Wharton School health economist Sandy Schwartz on the seminal GUSTO Trial, which was the biggest trial in heart attacks at that time and proved the drug was not only better but 10 times cheaper than streptokinase.
He also applied forward-thinking strategies with the launch of Pulmozyme, which remains the foundation of cystic fibrosis treatment. Back then, Genentech CEO Art Levinson said the company had to reach patients without advertising, so Jim had to think creatively. He turned gene.com into the first biopharmaceutical website to integrate corporate, product, and patient-oriented content in one destination while also leveraging the concept of linking and optimizing search to ensure cystic fibrosis patients could find the site. This was well before anyone even heard of SEO.
“Jim was always patient centric—before it became in vogue—and thinking about how do we include the patient and the patient’s families, how do we communicate with them, and at that point nobody was really using the web,” says Ronald Martell, the current CEO & President of Jasper Therapeutics, who was Jim’s colleague at Genentech. “Our positioning and messaging were critical and Jim was on the leading edge of how to use technology to reach people.”
Jim proved that again while at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (RPR, which is now Sanofi) when a snowstorm threatened its launch of Rilutek, the first treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). At his colleague Bob Pearson’s house to prepare for their press announcement event in NYC, a blizzard made it impossible for them or anyone to get there. They quickly pivoted and organized the industry’s first virtual press conference in 1995—before Skype, Zoom, or Teams.
“As a client, Jim had a high regard for excellence. For him there was nothing that wasn’t possible,” says Jennifer Gottlieb, now the Global President, Chief Client Officer at Real Chemistry, but who first worked with Jim as a client. “Jim was not afraid to push the envelope on the client side, and he’s the same way on the consulting side. He’s just all in! That’s the best way you could describe Jim, he’s thinking 24/7 and he has elevated our craft of healthcare marketing and communications to a level of importance that it didn’t have before.”
Building a Network
It could have been a different story. When Jim graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, his goal was to do publicity for Madonna or The Rolling Stones. But the first internship he landed was at LobsenzStevens, which involved calling media about barium enemas. Later, when looking for a full-time job, that part of his resume drew the attention of Hill+Knowlton’s healthcare team, which just won the Metamucil and Pepto-Bismol accounts at P&G and figured they found the perfect person who knows all about the bowel region. So, his career in healthcare literally began at the bottom.
From there he helped Hill+Knowlton launch the first enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test for HIV. He made stops at Barnum & Souza and Gross Townsend Frank Hoffman (GTFH) where they launched big products like Pravachol for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). Then on to Genentech and RPR, where he used guerilla-style marketing to help chemotherapy Taxotere compete with the similarly sounding Taxol at BMS. Next, he spent time at Heartport, a medical device startup aiming to change heart surgery. When Johnson & Johnson acquired the company, Jim was gutted and decided it was time to start his own company, Weisscom Partners, in 2001.
“My experience taught me that the communications function was not about communications,” Jim explains. “It’s a hard skill—not a soft skill—but an important one, because communications plays such a critical role in helping to raise money, get advocacy, and become a destination of choice for the best scientists, marketers, business designers, and business development people. A CEO who can do it well is going have an edge over a CEO who can’t, even if the science is great.”
Jim credits those lessons to a lot of great mentors he followed from company to company throughout that early part of his career, including—but not limited to—Beverly Simons, Laura Leber, Greg Baird, Doug Arbesfeld, Ilyssa Levins, Lynn O’Connor-Vos, Charlene Prounis, and Terri Clevenger. He has continued to build his own network of people who he brought into his company at various points during its evolution from Weisscom to WCG to W2O to Real Chemistry.
“Jim is a great connector,” explains Mary Stutts, now CEO of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA). Stutts first met Jim when she was in his old role at Genentech and he was running his consultancy. Eventually, Stutts joined Real Chemistry when they were launching a new health equity practice. He also helped her land an invite to be the keynote speaker at HBA’s annual conference. Earlier this year, she was given the chance to take the CEO role at the organization and called Jim to say she was leaving.
“He said, ‘That was my plan from the very beginning!’ I believed him because when I look back, he has always been very intentional, and I see it in the lives of other people, too,” Stutts explains. “He’s always looking at what’s the next step for people, not just the next step for him and his business. He just cares about people.”
An Industry Visionary
Of course, Jim has also become known for seeing what’s next in the industry. At Genentech, he learned from Art Stevens who said, “we follow the data to get to the right outcome.” He has continued that philosophy throughout Real Chemistry’s history. He was an early adopter of data analytics, social media, social listening, social graphing, influencer engagement, and now artificial intelligence (AI). To help him get ahead of the industry in terms of data, he recruited his old colleague Bob Pearson, who was then at Dell.
“When that partnership with Bob was announced, I remember being at an industry event and everyone was like, “What is Jim doing? Is he trying to get business from Silicon Valley?” Stutts says. “But he wasn’t. He was doubling down on healthcare with a vision of where healthcare communications and thought leadership needed to go and knew that technology was going to be critical to that.”
That vision has resulted in massive growth for Real Chemistry from its one-person consultancy origin as Weisscom to a global health innovation company of more than 2,000 people. In 2022, Real Chemistry achieved its 21st consecutive year of double-digit growth, with revenue of $555 million—a 17% increase over 2021. Instead of selling to a holding company to fuel its growth, Jim was one of the first in the industry to turn to private equity groups, first Mountaingate Capital in 2016 and then New Mountain Capital in 2019, which helped Real Chemistry acquire over a dozen companies.
“I wanted to keep our entrepreneurial spirit and stay quasi-independent through financing,” Jim explains. “I couldn’t have had 100 data scientists and analytics people at a holding company, and I wanted to keep pounding at these things because I had an instinct. And then, we had a rule of thumb for new acquisitions. Whenever a client asked about something three times, we had to either do it ourselves or acquire someone who could. I wanted to create a company that I would hire. That had quality, gravitas, and could be partners in business.”
A Good Health Citizen
“Jim always says that no matter your role in the organization, we all have a duty to pick up the paper if you see a piece of trash on the floor,” says Wendy Carhart, Chief Communications, Culture, and Purpose Officer at Real Chemistry. “What he means is everyone should pitch in and help when it matters. I think that spirit is what Real Chemistry is all about. Everyone plays a role in making this company successful. Everyone wants to do work that makes a difference.”
Jim ensures that difference-making goal extends beyond the company’s work with clients. He founded and sponsors the Weiss Center for Social Commerce at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communication to provide students with communications skills to accelerate their career development. He also established a partnership with The LAGRANT Foundation, whose mission is to increase the number of ethnic minorities in the fields of advertising, marketing, and public relations.
During COVID-19, Jim committed more than $400,000 of agency funds and staff time to support the Black Coalition Against Covid, a broad coalition of healthcare organizations that tripled the percentage of Black Americans willing to get the vaccine. Jim also serves on the HBA’s Advisory Board and has encouraged and mentored dozens of women and diverse employees to achieve leadership roles, including at Real Chemistry, where 68% of employees identify as female.
“He’s truly an ally for women, inclusion, and patients,” Stutts says. “His mind is always working around how to do more to improve patient care, whether it’s through health equity, digital, or AI. I don’t see another firm like theirs that also understands the heartbeat of healthcare across the board.”
In 2022, Jim stepped down as CEO of Real Chemistry and took on the role as Chairman in part to lend his mind to other companies. He currently serves as an advisor, investor, and/or Board Member to several organizations including Indapta Therapeutics, IMIDomics, Havah Therapeutics, Magnetic Ventures, Dstillery, and BrightEdge, as well as the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Cancer Research Institute, and the Commission on Public Relations Education.
“I’m only 58, I have plenty of time to do more,” Weiss says. “I see myself building multiple companies and organizations. I think there’s probably another one in me that’s going to incorporate the next generation of technologies. I can also take what I’ve learned and share that with a broader, wider group of people in both the profit and nonprofit worlds. I want to leave a legacy of what I did to make the world a healthier, better place.”
Jim Weiss. #TheGreatConntecter. #VisonaryLeader. #IndustryPrognosticator. #LifetimeAchievementWinner. #NotDoneYet.
