Jim Baker Leads the Way with the Communications Blueprint to Make the Most of JPM

Jim Baker is all too familiar with trench warfare. A former Army officer turned life science communications leader, he spent nearly a decade helping Blueprint Medicines navigate some of the most unforgiving terrain in biotech — pipeline setbacks, leadership transitions, market whiplash, and the existential question of whether the company could break through as a commercial enterprise.

Through every moment of volatility, Jim relied on a philosophy forged during his military years: take the hill. For Blueprint, that meant building a reputational moat strong enough to withstand scientific uncertainty and shifting investor sentiment. Over nine years, he helped reshape the company from an early oncology innovator into a focused mast-cell enterprise — one compelling enough to attract Sanofi and culminate in a $9.5 billion acquisition in July 2025.

“We built a battle-ready executive team,” Jim recalls. “We became very effective in synthesizing diverse insights, being nimble in the face of challenge, and communicating a unified vision.”

As CEOs and communicators enter the frenetic run-up to JPM, Blueprint’s story — and Jim’s leadership — illustrates the power of communications as a strategic asset that drives enterprise value, fuels investor conviction, and unifies organizations through change.

A Foundation Forged in Focus

Jim’s preparation began long before Blueprint. His Army service instilled resilience and decisiveness. His early work with patient advocacy groups taught him to communicate with precision and empathy. And his agency and corporate roles — including positions at Biogen, Sarepta, PTC Therapeutics, and Idera Pharmaceuticals — gave him a panoramic view of how integrated biotech companies operate across functional disciplines.

Those experiences sharpened his ability to translate complex biology into enterprise strategy — and recognize when narrative clarity is the missing ingredient.

“There’s a common thread in different moments of my life — being face to face with failure, feeling isolated in the moment, then being resilient through it.”

Blueprint would call on that resilience repeatedly.

When Jim joined, the company was still scrappy — rich in scientific ambition but undefined in commercial identity. His remit spanned IR, PR, internal communications, advocacy, policy, and reputation. His guiding principle: communications is strategy, and strategy is communications. Alignment wasn’t optional; it was imperative.

From R&D to Commercialization: Earning the Right to Grow

Pivoting from R&D to commercialization is one of the industry’s hardest transformations. Blueprint confronted that head-on when a competitor surged ahead with compelling data and an aggressive narrative. “From a communications standpoint, we didn’t execute as well; for a small company we had a lot going on and they outdid us with a fierce focus. Some moments weren’t fun, but it was an incredibly valuable experience,” Jim says.

The lesson was clear: in biotech, the narrative is part of the competitive landscape. You win hearts, minds, and markets by shaping expectations — not reacting to them.

A defining shift came in 2022 when Kate Haviland assumed the CEO role amid an unforgiving biotech downturn and investor skepticism about the timing of leadership change. Jim became a crucial partner as Kate navigated external doubts and internal recalibration.

Her ferocity and clarity helped reset expectations across the company. Together, they strengthened an ethos that was part of Blueprint’s operating system: Earn our growth.

Not expanding for the sake of optics. Not scaling until the data justified it. Not investing until the company had truly earned the next inflection point. Employees weren’t shielded from tradeoffs — they were brought into them. Blueprint never conducted a reduction in force; trust was built through transparency and rigor.

The Mast Cell Moment: Reintroducing Blueprint at JPM

By 2024, Blueprint faced a strategic crossroads. The science was strong, but the story was diffuse. Jim partnered with the executive team to articulate a sharper identity, culminating in a pivotal JPM 2024 moment where they reintroduced Blueprint as a mast-cell–focused company anchored by AYVAKIT (avapritinib), which the company had successfully launched in 2023.

This shift wasn’t cosmetic — it was architectural.

Communications became the strategic forcing function, aligning leaders around priorities, focusing teams, and clarifying the company’s value to investors and prospective partners. AYVAKIT’s commercial traction reinforced Blueprint’s credibility, while the broader mast-cell franchise signaled even more long-term growth potential.

The clarity of that story made Blueprint legible to acquirers. AYVAKIT and the franchise assets behind it sparked intensified M&A interest, ultimately driving Sanofi’s $9.5 billion acquisition in 2025.

Behind the scenes, Blueprint executed “everything all at once,” shaping expectations effectively and delivering commercial and R&D wins. They deepened relationships with KOLs and patient groups, generated decisive data and real-world evidence, strengthened AYVAKIT’s value proposition with next-generation diagnostics, and orchestrated an integrated internal and external narrative.

The momentum propelled them into JPM 2025, where one investor told Jim that Blueprint had “won JPM”—a rare distinction in a bearish market, and for him a career highlight.

Managing Investors: Offense, Defense, and the Middle Ground

Investor relations in biotech requires a unique form of leadership maturity. Jim embraced the tension between short-term expectations and long-term value creation.

“Investors are data junkies, but they can get lost in the weeds pretty quickly. Our trick was to deeply understand their thinking, pulling in all the insight we could, and communicate with precision so they could see value aligned with their own strategy.”

Blueprint used data to proactively assess competitive hurdles, shape expectations, and anchor credibility. The company’s narrative discipline helped investors see beyond weekly trading cycles to the strategic horizon.

Preparing for M&A: Keeping the Tent Small and the Strategy Tight

Blueprint wasn’t seeking a sale, but the company knew that strategic clarity would breed optionality. In 2024, Sanofi and Blueprint met to discuss potential collaboration opportunities; as Blueprint sharpened its story and execution, conversations advanced.

Jim’s role was disciplined and discreet. His guiding principle: keep the tent small. Leaks erode value, misalignment derails momentum, there is no deal until it’s signed. Communications became the backbone of the M&A process — from scenario planning to announcement choreography to cultural transition.

When external pressures — market volatility, investor and media speculation — surfaced, Jim kept the organization anchored on long-term outcomes rather than immediate noise.

“We took a very disciplined and cohesive approach, and we controlled the narrative through a huge milestone for the company, with sensitivity for those who would be impacted especially our employees. I’m proud of how we handled it.”

Leading the Way Into JPM

Blueprint’s story is a case study in the power of narrative discipline, cultural cohesion, and leadership alignment. As CEOs and communicators prepare for JPM — where narrative strength can shape enterprise value as decisively as data — Jim Baker’s journey offers a reminder: The most successful companies are the ones brave enough to articulate who they are, focused enough to stay true to it, and disciplined enough to execute against it.

Waterhouse is a brand reputation agency that helps emerging and fast-growth life sciences companies build competitive advantage. For more information email kkraemer@waterhousebrands.com.