Highlights since high school
Making Waves in Biotech, Aquariums, and Beyond.
Greetings fellow Knights.
Well, where to start. After Bullard, I went to UC Santa Barbara for Aquatic Biology. This is where I also met my college neighbor Melissa Wood, who I would eventually marry. We have been married 32 years and live in her home town of South San Francisco. We have two children. Kyle graduated recently from UC Santa Cruz as a Marine Biologist and Megan is currently a History major at University of Portland after interning last year in London with Lloyd’s Registry.
I retired a couple years ago from the biotech industry. I had started with Genentech and then left to do a startup (Abgenix) that was bought by Amgen. After leaving Amgen, I was fortunate to join Allergan. I became the head of the Botox® drug substance organization for over a decade. After the company was bought out, I thought of retiring but got an opportunity to start an mRNA division for Ultragenyx. This was well before the pandemic when most people didn’t know what an mRNA was, even my biotech friends.
After retiring a few years ago, I started teaching Biotech classes at a local community college for fun. I am a Trustee on a San Mateo County Special District Board and sit on a couple community group Boards.
I’ve been involved with Scouting for over 20 years and still go to summer camp with my Scouts, even though my kids are long out of Scouts. I’m also the president of the San Francisco Aquarium Society. It’s a 103-year-old aquarium club that once had close ties to the Steinhart Aquarium at the Academy of Sciences.
I’ve traveled extensively in Europe and a bit in Asia. Currently, I’m waiting for my wife to retire from 33+ years of elementary school teaching, so that we can travel outside of the summer breaks.