David Martin is co-founder, chairman and CEO of AvidBiotics, a privately held biotechnology company in South San Francisco.  After 3 years at NIH, he in 1969 joined the faculty of UCSF in the departments of Medicine and Biochemistry. He became a professor in both departments and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until he joined Genentech in 1982, as the first VP of research and development. He subsequently became Executive VP of R&D at the newly formed joint venture between DuPont and Merck in 1991, returning to California in 1994, where he joined Chiron as president of Chiron Therapeutics. Dr. Martin co-founded Eos Biotechnology in 1996, became Chairman & CEO of Gangagen in 2003, and co-founded AvidBiotics Corp. in 2005. He served as a board director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals for 12 years and of Varian Associates and Varian Medical Systems for 17 years, the last 10 as lead director.  David was raised in Florida, attended MIT, and received his MD and post graduate medical training at Duke University Medical School. He lives in Mill Valley with Kathleen, his wife, and they have 2 adult children and 3 grandchildren all living in Marin County, California.