Brook Byers
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Biographical Information
"Brook Byers is a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, having joined the firm in 1977. A venture capital investor since 1972, Brook has been closely involved with more than 50 new technology-based ventures, more than half of which have become public companies. He formed the first life sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build more than 110 life sciences companies that have developed hundreds of products to treat underserved medical needs for millions of patients. Brook was the founding president and then chairman of four biotechnology companies that were incubated in KPCB's offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value of more than US$8 billion. He serves on the board of directors of CardioDX, Crescendo, Five Prime Therapeutics, Genomic Health Inc., OptiMedica, Pacific Biosciences, Inc., Tethys, Veracyte and XDx, Inc.
"Formerly, Brook served as a director of Idec Pharmaceuticals (chairman), Athena Neurosciences (chairman), Signal Pharmaceuticals, Arris Pharmaceuticals, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Hybritech (chairman), Genprobe and others. These companies have pioneered the medical use of molecular biology, monoclonal antibodies, personalized medicine, molecular diagnostics, genomics and sequencing. He also previously served as the president and a director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. Brook is a current board member of the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Foundation, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford University’s Bio-X Advisory Council and the Stanford Eye Council. Formerly, he served as co-chair of the five-year, US$1.4 billion UCSF capital campaign. In 2007, UCSF awarded Brook the UCSF Medal, its honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, Brook was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. In 2010, he received an honorary Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology.
"Brook is a former director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, the California Healthcare Institute, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, the That Many May See (UCSF) Vision Research Foundation (chairman) and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. He was also a founder of TechNet. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Brook graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and received an M.B.A. from Stanford University. When not at work, Brook enjoys listening to musicians Eric Clapton, Jack Johnson, B.B. King, Alison Krauss, the Rolling Stones, Yo-Yo Ma, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band. His favorite web sites include www.newschools.org, www.calacademy.org, www.ucsf.edu, www.womenforwomen.org, www.acumenfund.org, www.climateproject.org, www.edf.org and www.ted.com." [1]
