Founding Partner, Polaris Partners, Boston, MA

Board Member: Elected 2000
Chair of the Board 2008–2020

BS Hobart College
MS Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
MBA Harvard Business School

As a founding partner of Polaris Partners, Terry McGuire brings more than 35 years of successful early stage investing experience in medical and information technology companies.

Terry has invested in more than 50 companies. He co-founded Inspire Pharmaceuticals, AIR, and MicroCHIPS. Companies Terry has supported have touched more than 60 million patients and saved over 400,000 lives.

In 2015, Terry was listed as one of Scientific American’s Worldview 100, visionaries who continue to reshape biotechnology and the world. Terry was listed in Forbes’ Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors multiple times, and was chosen to receive the Irish America Healthcare & Life Sciences 50 Award. He is a recipient of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award, and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences, awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem. In 2017, Terry was recognized by Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology (WEST) for his contributions to promoting gender parity. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and Canisius College for his work in translational science.

Terry was former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association. During his tenure he testified before the US Congress on issues related to financial regulation. Recently, Terry was awarded the NVCA’s Outstanding Service Award in recognition of the extraordinary amount of time, resources and dedication to association efforts he has spent that in turn benefits the entire venture industry.

In addition to Thayer, Terry sits on the boards of MIT’s The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, and The Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS). He serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

In 2009, Terry helped create the Global Venture Capital Congress (GVCC), a gathering of venture capital leadership from around the world. For the past ten years Terry has chaired the congress. The GVCC has worked to create cooperation among venture capital associations in areas as diverse as public policy, research and strategic topics including diversity and inclusion, taxation, and the global image of venture capital and private equity.