Edward E. Penhoet

Edward E. Penhoet

A co-founder of Chiron, Penhoet served as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer from its formation in 1981 until April 1998. He was vice chair of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). For 10 years prior to founding Chiron, Edward was a faculty member of the Biochemistry Department of the University of California, Berkeley. Edward was Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley from 1998 to 2002. He was Chief Science Officer of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation from 2002 to 2004 and was President of the Foundation from 2004 to 2008. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Biological Chemists, and in 2009, served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) from 2009 to 2016.

Penhoet earned his A.B. in biology from Stanford University in 1963, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Washington in 1968. He was a post-doctoral fellow at UC San Diego, from 1968 to 1970.

In 1991, Dr. Penhoet received the first Distinguished Faculty Award in the Life Sciences from the department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UCB. In 1992, he shared with Dr. William Rutter, a Chiron co-founder, the Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year Award presented by Ernst & Young and Inc. Magazine. In 1994, they received jointly the Harvard Business School Northern California Alumni Chapter award as Entrepreneur of the Year. He has published more than 50 scientific articles and papers.