Arthur Levinson Joins Amyris Board of Directors
Emeryville, CA (April 19, 2010) -- Amyris Biotechnologies, Inc., announced today that Arthur Levinson, Ph.D, is joining the company's board of directors.
"Arthur is a highly respected business and technology leader who led one of the most important and successful science-based companies in the world," said John Melo, chief executive officer of Amyris. "His experience will add immeasurably to our leadership team, and will help guide us as we work to capitalize on the potential of our industrial synthetic biology platform."
Levinson serves as chairman of Genentech, Inc., having joined Genentech in 1980 as a research scientist. He became vice president of research technology in 1989, vice president of research in 1990, senior vice president of research in 1992 and senior vice president of research and development in 1993. He served as chief executive officer of Genentech from 1995 to 2009, and as chairman of Genentech since 1999. Levinson is a member of Genentech's Scientific Research Board, which serves as an advisory group to the company regarding its research and early development projects.
Levinson is a director of Apple, Inc. and a director of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. He also serves on the Board of Scientific Consultants of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, on the Industrial Advisory Board of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research, on the Advisory Council for the Princeton University Department of Molecular Biology, on the Advisory Council for the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, and on the Executive Council of TechNet.
Levinson has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific articles and has been a named inventor on 11 United States patents. Levinson was inducted into the Biotech Hall of Fame at the 2003 Biotech Meeting of Chief Executive Officers. BusinessWeek named Levinson one of the "Best Managers of the Year" in 2004 and 2005, and Institutional Investor named him "America's Best CEO" in the biotech category four years in a row (2004-2007). In 2006, Princeton University awarded Levinson the James Madison Medal for a distinguished career in scientific research and in biotechnology. Also in 2006, Barron's recognized Levinson as one of "The World's Most Respected CEOs," and the Best Practice Institute placed Levinson on their "25 Top CEOs" list. In 2008, Levinson was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
"Amyris's technology of turning microbes into living factories to produce defined, recoverable, high energy molecules offers an exciting potential alternative to petroleum," said Levinson. "I'm looking forward to working with the board and management to seek to realize their vision of reducing carbon emissions to better our environment."
With the addition of Dr. Levinson, Amyris's board of directors includes John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Samir Kaul of Khosla Ventures, Geoff Duyk of TPG Biotechnology, Patrick Pichette of Google, Carole Piwnica of Naxos U.K., Ralph Alexander of Riverstone Holdings, and Fernando Reinach of Votorantim Novos Negócios, as well as Amyris chief executive officer John Melo and founder Kinkead Reiling.
About Amyris
Amyris is building an integrated renewable products company applying industrial synthetic biology to genetically modify microorganisms to serve as living factories. Amyris designs these microorganisms to produce defined molecules for use as renewable chemicals and transportation fuels. Amyris Brasil S.A., a subsidiary of Amyris, oversees the establishment and expansion of Amyris's production in Brazil, including SMA Indústria Química S.A., its joint venture with Usina São Martinho, one of the largest sugar and ethanol producers in Brazil. In addition, Amyris is building fuels distribution capabilities in the United States through its subsidiary, Amyris Fuels LLC. More information about Amyris and its subsidiaries is available at www.amyris.com or www.amyrisbrasil.com.