Our Team

As Founder and CEO, Banks Bourne oversees all business operations and direct investment opportunities at Bourne Partners. He and the firm have been party to more than $10 billion of transactions in the pharmaceutical (“pharma”), pharma services and consumer healthcare sectors. Most recently Banks, the Bourne Team and other partners co-founded Covis Pharma S.à.r.l. in 2011, successfully helping build and eventually divest the majority of assets in 2015 for $1.2 billion. In late 2015, the firm established Phoenix Therapeutics, Inc., a joint venture with The Carlyle Group. Banks is also the founder of Tanner Pharma Group, a pharma services company dedicated to providing managed access, commercialization and clinical trials services to patients and partners in more than 100 countries.

For over 20 years, Bourne Partners has transacted with nearly all major pharmaceutical and specialty pharmaceuticals companies around the world, including Banks’ initial investment in King Pharmaceuticals in the late 1990’s. This investment introduced Banks to the pharmaceutical world and jumpstarted his interest in the healthcare sector. Since then, he has invested in more than 200 private companies / assets since 2000.

Prior to founding Bourne Partners, Banks held the position of Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for TITAN Technology Partners and worked in the investment banking field for Wachovia Securities, Inc. He received a B.A. degree in Business Management (Magna Cum Laude) from North Carolina State University and an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University. He is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and endowed the Wake Forest University School of Business “Professorship in Investments and Portfolio Management”.

While Banks has derived great satisfaction by offering focused advisory services to, and investing in pharma, healthcare, and consumer-oriented companies that need strategic and operational insights; he is even more gratified by knowing that his work has helped companies to improve the health and well-being of patients across the world.

Banks was YPO’s 2020 Global Impact Award Regional Finalist for his philanthropic endeavors alongside Tanner Pharma Group and Novartis, delivering lifesaving cancer treatments to patients in third world countries.

In addition to his passion for golf, Banks enjoys traveling to new and interesting destinations and spending time with his wife and children. He also actively supports the Levine Children’s Hospital and Levine Cancer Institute, both part of Atrium Health (formerly known as Carolinas HealthCare System). He is co-founder of the Russell Guerin Melanoma Research Fund at Atrium Health. Banks is passionate about providing healthcare and specifically pharmaceuticals to less fortunate patients, as demonstrated by supporting The Bourne Foundation, The Max Foundation, Partners in Health and other non-profit organizations.