Apple has appointed Arthur Levinson, one of Silicon Valley’s most respected leaders, as the company’s new Chairman of the Board. Who exactly is Levinson, and why has Apple chosen him to lead the board?
Levinson has served on Apple’s board of directors for more than a decade. In 2000, Steve Jobs asked Levinson to join Apple’s board when Levinson was chairman and CEO of Genentech, the multibillion-dollar biotech company now owned by Roche. Only Intuit’s Bill Campbell and J.Crew’s Millard Drexler have served longer on Apple’s board.
“Art is a highly respected CEO and leads one of the most important and successful science-based companies of our time,” Jobs said when Levinson first joined the board. “We look forward to his insight and counsel.”
Levinson was born in Seattle in March 1950 to Sol and Malvina Levinson. From his childhood he was interested in the sciences. He points to Carl Sagan’s Intelligent Life in the Universe as one of the most influential books in his early life. That inspiration took him to the University of Washington, where he graduated with a B.Sc. in molecular biology in 1972. He received a PhD in Biochemstry from Princeton in 1977, a year before he got married.
His career at Genentech began in 1980, when he was recruited as a research scientist by Genentech co-founder Dr. Herbert Boyer. Levinson quickly moved up the ranks, becoming the VP of research technology in 1989 and senior VP of R&D in 1993. In 1995, Levinson was named CEO. In 1999, he was also named chairman of the board.
In 2009, Levinson stepped down from his CEO duties at Genentech after the company was acquired by Roche for $46.8 billion. He remains the company’s chairman and serves on a variety of boards, including the boards of Roche, Amyris and the Broad Institute. He also joined Google’s board of directors in 2004, but left in 2009 not long after the departure of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board.
What kind of change can we expect from Apple with Levinson in charge of the board? Not much. Levinson has served as co-lead of Apple’s board since 2005, only relinquishing that title in August when Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO and became the company’s chairman. Levinson has been one of the company’s most visible leaders for a long time.
In other words, don’t expect Levinson to change Apple’s magic formula. He helped create it. If you want to get a feel for Levinson and his personality, check out this video of a speech he gave to Genentech employees when Roach bought out the company:
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