Blair Okita

About

For the past 35+ years, Blair has been a pharmaceutical manufacturing, quality, and development executive where he has had the opportunity to work globally and drive twelve new chemical/biological and biosimilar products through development and into sustained commercial production. As President of BioPCS Consulting, LLC he provides clients with the knowledge and tools necessary to assure that the performance of their organizations and manufacturing processes are predictable and positioned for successful, sustainable operations. In the Fall of 2023, he will serve as the Brenton S. Halsey Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, at the University of Virginia. Prior to that, Blair was the SVP of Manufacturing Science, Strategy, and Technology and one of the original four employees of National Resilience Inc. While there, he helped build the organization to the current multi-site organization with over 1600 employees. He has also been the SVP and Head of Global Healthcare Quality at Merck KGAa, Darmstadt Germany with oversight of the Quality organizations at 17 plants and 54 subsidiaries with 1600 Quality Professionals. He spent 14 years at Genzyme Corporation in several different roles leading Technology Development, Global Therapeutics Manufacturing and Global Quality. Blair’s early career included responsibility for the Vaccine Technology group at Merck & Co., Inc as well as Head of the Bioreactor Scale-up group within Biological Process Sciences at SmithKline Beecham. Blair received his BA in Biology from Johns Hopkins University as well as an MS and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He, his wife Debbie, and his dog Mia currently live in Charlottesville.

Education

B.A. Biology, Johns Hopkins University

M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia