Bill Bowes

Who is Bill Bowes?

Founding partner Bill Bowes has seen a lot of change since USVP's

inception in 1981 - in the venture community, in the Valley, in the

world. But some important things remain the same; namely, the passion

of entrepreneurs: "It's the entrepreneurs that keep this business new

and fresh, every day," says Bill.

Bill was the founding shareholder of Amgen and was its first

Chairman and Treasurer. Prior to founding USVP, he'd already had

success as a venture capitalist with companies like Cetus, Raychem

(where he served on the board from 1961 until the late 1970s), and Dymo

Industries. Bill had previously been Senior Vice President and Director

of Blyth Eastman Dillon Company, where he worked from 1953 to

1978 and was a consultant to Blyth Eastman Paine Webber from 1978 to

1980.

At USVP, Bill led the firm's investments in Advanced Cardiovascular

Systems, Applied Biosystems, Devices for Vascular Intervention,

Glycomed, Sun Microsystems and Ventritex. Currently Bill is on the

board of Xoma Corporation.

Today Bill devotes much of his time to education and medical

research. He is on the executive committee of the San Francisco

Conservatory of Music and recently retired as Board Chairman of The

Exploratorium, San Francisco's exemplary interactive museum of the

sciences. He also serves on the Board of the Asian Art Museum, Grace

Cathedral and the Hoover Institution.

Having focused his investment career largely in the medical

industry, Bill remains involved through some of his nonprofit work. He

is on the Board of Directors of the UCSF Foundation and was Chairman of

the Mission Bay Capital Campaign. He serves on the Advisory Committees

of Bio-X, the Institute for Systems Biology, QB3 and Harvard Partners

Center for Genetics and Genomics - each dedicated to furthering

interdisciplinary medical research. He is on the visiting committee at

the Harvard Business School.

Bill holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University, an M.B.A.

from Harvard University and served in the U.S. Army infantry in the

South Pacific and Japan during and after World War II.