Thomas Monath, M.D. To Join Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to Advance Innovation in Infectious Diseases with the New KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund
MENLO Park, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --May 17, 2006--Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers -- an innovator in providing “venture and relationship capital” (SM) services to entrepreneurs -- is pleased to announce Dr. Thomas P. Monath, M.D. will join the KPCB team as a Partner on June 26, 2006.
Tom Monath said, “I have devoted my career to addressing serious challenges to public health worldwide through scientific breakthroughs and new product development. The opportunity to do this with the resources and network of KPCB provides a broader platform and an ability to work with a variety of exciting young companies across a wide product spectrum.”
Brook Byers of KPCB said, “In February, 2006, we announced the formation of our new $200 Million KPCB Pandemic Preparedness and Biodefense Fund.” Tom’s remarkable career as a senior executive in public health and in vaccine discovery and development will help us accelerate innovation in infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. He will assist young companies developing novel vaccines, antiviral drugs, rapid diagnostics, and disease surveillance techniques as an active advisor, Board member, and public policy advocate.
Dr. Monath has been Chief Scientific Officer with Acambis and its predecessor companies since 1992. Having previously served as Vice President, Research and Medical Affairs, he was appointed Chief Scientific Officer and a member of the Board in March 2002. During that time, he has overseen the development of many of the products within Acambis’ pipeline of vaccines.
Prior to joining Acambis, he worked as Colonel and Chief of the Virology Division of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease. During almost 20 years as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, he was instrumental in building the division into a key centre for research into arthropod-borne infections, such as encephalitis viruses, yellow fever, and bubonic plague.
Tom was responsible for direction of Acambis’ programs to develop vaccines against infectious diseases such as smallpox, Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever, West Nile, and Clostridium difficile and led the development of Acambis’ proprietary ChimeriVaxTM technology. During his career, he has published more than 300 scientific papers and six books, including a seminal work on flaviviruses. Among other external positions, he is Adjunct Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, and served as President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and as a member of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee.
Since its founding in 1972, KPCB has backed entrepreneurs in 475 ventures, including AOL, Align, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Genprobe, Google, Hybritech, IDEC Pharmaceuticals, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Lotus, Nuvasive, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Verisign and Xilinx. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 250,000 people. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. Many other ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions.
For more information on KPCB, visit www.kpcb.com
CONTACTS:
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Brook Byers, 650-233-3322
John Denniston, 650-233-3300