Career
Levinson joined Genentech in 1980 as a research scientist and became vice president, Research Technology in 1989; vice president, Research in 1990; senior vice president, Research in 1992; and senior vice president, Research and Development in 1993.
In 1995, Levinson became Genentech’s chief executive officer, and in 1999 he was named chairman. In the same year, Levinson received the Irvington Institute's Corporate Leadership Award in Science and was honored with the Corporate Leadership Award from the National Breast Cancer Coalition.
Levinson was inducted into the Biotech Hall of Fame at the 2003 Biotech Meeting of chief executive officers. BusinessWeek named Levinson one of the “Best Managers of the Year” in 2004 and 2005, and Institutional Investor named him “America’s Best CEO” in the biotech category four years in a row (2004–2007). Levinson served as a director of Google, Inc. from 2004 to 2009, when he resigned from Google's board of directors.
In 2006, Princeton University awarded Levinson the James Madison Medal for a distinguished career in scientific research and in biotechnology. Also in 2006, Barron’s recognized Levinson as one of “The World’s Most Respected CEOs,” and the Best Practice Institute placed Levinson on their “25 Top CEOs” list. In 2008, Levinson was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and Glassdoor.com rated him as the "nicest" CEO of 2008 with a 93% approval rating.
In 2010, the Biotechnology Industry Organization honored Levinson with the Biotechnology Heritage Award and the San Francisco Exploratorium with their Director’s Award.
Levinson has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific articles and has been a named inventor on 11 United States patents.
On November 15, 2011 Levinson was named chairman of the board for Apple Inc. replacing Steve Jobs.
Read more about this topic: Arthur D. Levinson
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