William Bowes Jr., early biotech investor, philanthropist, dies
William Bowes Jr., early biotech investor, philanthropist, dies
William K. Bowes Jr., a pioneer investor in the biotechnology industry, an ardent supporter of basic medical research, and long an active philanthropist, died of cardiac arrest at his home in San Francisco on Dec. 28 with his wife, Ute, by his side.
Mr. Bowes was a founder of U.S. Venture Partners, the wide-ranging Silicon Valley firm that has backed more than 450 startup companies in varied new fields, and that focuses now on information technology and health care.
When management issues plagued that company in 1983, Mr. Bowes recruited a team of scientists and founded a new firm at first called Applied Molecular Genetics.
The firm became Amgen, and it is now the largest independent pharmaceutical company in the world, valued at more than $120 billion.
Among them were the Exploratorium, where he had served as chairman of the board; the San Francisco Opera; the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; the Asian Art Museum; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Environmental Defense Fund; the interdisciplinary biosciences institute called Stanford Bio-X; the Harvard Stem Cell Research Institute; the Institute for Systems Biology; the California Academy of Sciences; Teach for America; and the International Rescue Committee.
“Bill was so widely respected and beloved in the Bay Area community that when he said something was worth investing in, others trusted his instincts and followed his lead,” said UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood.