J. Leighton Read
Venture Partner, Palo Alto
Leighton Read is the Treasurer of the BVGH Board of Directors. He is an American serial entrepreneur and venture investor with a long track record of building companies that have commercialised important medicines and life-science technologies. From 2000 – 2008 he was a managing director of Alloy Ventures, an early-stage firm investing in life science and technology companies. As a Venture Partner today, Leighton continues to manage his portfolio of companies at Alloy. Leighton joined Brandon Capital, a Venture firm in Australia, as a Venture Partner in 2014 where he manages a growing portfolio of companies and advises the firm on investments.
Previously, he founded Affymax NV (with Alejandro Zaffaroni) where he served as Managing Director and President of the Pharma Division, sold to Glaxo SmithKline and spun out Affymetrix and Maxygen. He was the founding investor, Chairman and CEO of Aviron which developed FluMist™, the intranasal influenza vaccine acquired by MedImmune. Leighton has been a director of companies ranging from biotechnology, medical devices, materials science, energy and software. His current portfolio companies are Alexza, AnaptysBio, Cambrios, Genomatica, Siluria and Synergy Eyes.
Leighton received a B.S. from Rice University in Houston in Psychology and Biology, an MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and completed internal medicine training at Duke and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, where he held appointments at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health. His research dealt with applications of decision theory in medicine and policy regarding medical innovation. He produced a successful interactive game in 1984 to promote healthy lifestyles and carried this interest as Co-founder of Seriosity and co-authored (with Byron Reeves) Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete.
Leighton serves as a director or advisor for a number of private companies and non-profits, including The BeneTech Initiative, BIO Ventures for Global Health and The UC Berkeley School of Public Health Council. His awards include several as co-inventor of technology underlying the Affymetrix GeneChip™ and Ernst & Young’s Northern California Life Science Entrepreneur of the Year.