William Rastetter

Biography

Dr. Rastetter holds a Bachelor of Science from MIT and earned a Masters and PhD degree in Chemistry from Harvard University. After leaving teaching on the East Coast, he joined Genentech Inc. (1982-1986), where he worked as a scientist and later as director of corporate ventures. He joined IDEC Pharmaceuticals in 1986, where he held a number of senior executive positions, including Chief Executive Offider for IDEC (1986-2002) and Executive Chairman of Biogen IDEC (2003-2005). At IDEC, Dr. Rastetter drew on his background in science to support management decisions, and he was instrumental in the company’s decision to develop Rituxan which was co-marketed with Genentech. He served on the board of directors at Illumina Inc. and been involved in entrepreneurial and investment activities as a partner for the venture capital firm Venrock, where he participated in the development of companies like Argonaut, Genencor, and Spiros Development Corporation. He has held faculty positions at the MIT and Harvard, and also sat on the board of the California Healthcare Institute.