Joseph C. Cook, Jr.
Principal and Co-Founder, Mountain Group Capital, LLC and The Limestone Fund, LLC
Education
- B.S. 1965, Industrial Engineering, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Joe Cook graduated with High Honors and was named a Torchbearer, UT’s highest student honor given for academic achievement and commitment to others. Cook then began his engineering career at Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis, focusing on automated cancer screening research. During his 28+ years with Eli Lilly, he held numerous senior executive positions in manufacturing, engineering, finance, sales and marketing, and general management. In 1993, Cook retired as group vice president for Global Operations.
After retiring from Lilly, he began a new career in biotechnology. He was a founder and Chairman of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a biotech company that recently received FDA approval for a new medicine for people with serious gastro-intestinal disorders. In 1998, he was elected chairman and CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a publicly traded company in San Diego. He led Amylin through the development of two new drugs for people with diabetes, BYETTA and BYDUREON, both of which have now been approved by the FDA. Cook retired as CEO Amylin in 2003 but continued to serve as the company’s chairman until 2009.
Following retirement from the Amylin CEO role, Cook and partners formed Mountain Group Capital (“MGC”), a Nashville based investment firm dedicated to investing in and actively guiding transformational businesses in the Life Sciences and Technology sectors. In 2009, he and partners formed The Limestone Fund which was subsequently chosen by the State of Tennessee as one of the original six TNInvestco award winners. Through various funds, MGC principals have invested in more than 20 companies in their targeted sectors
Cook currently serves as a director of two publicly traded companies, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Cambridge, MA and Corcept Therapeutics, Inc. in Palo Alto, CA. He also serves as chairman of Mercy Ministries International, a faith-based global ministry headquartered in Nashville and on the national board of the American Diabetes Association. Additionally, Cook has been a member of the Tickle College of Engineering’s Board of Advisors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for over 20 years, previously serving as chairman. In 1997, Cook and his wife established the Judith E. and Joseph C. Cook, Jr. Engineering Scholarship Endowment at UT to help deserving engineering students.
In 1999, Cook was awarded the Nathan W. Dougherty Award by the Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee. The Corporate Directors Forum named Cook its Director of the Year in 2003 and 2006, respectively. He also received the Pinnacle Award for Life Science Leadership from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego in 2009. For attaining extraordinary distinction and success in his field, Joseph Cook received the 2011 University of Tennessee Distinguished Alumna/Alumnus Award.