J. Leighton Read, M.D.

Dr. Read is an entrepreneur and venture investor based in the San Francisco Bay Area with a long track record of building companies that have commercialized important medicines and life-science technologies. From 2000 to 2008, he served as managing director of Alloy Ventures, an early-stage firm investing in life science and technology companies. He is currently a Venture Partner with the US office for Brandon Capital Partners, the leading life science venture investor in Australia and New Zealand.

Previously, Dr. Read founded Affymax NV where he served as Managing Director and President of the Pharma Division, sold to Glaxo SmithKline and resulted in spin outs of Affymetrix and Maxygen. He was the founding investor, Chairman and CEO of Aviron which developed FluMist^™, the intranasal influenza vaccine acquired by MedImmune. Dr. Read has been a director of companies ranging from biotechnology, medical devices, materials science, energy and software.

Dr. Read received a BSc from Rice University in Houston, 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. He produced a successful interactive game in 1984 to promote healthy lifestyles and co-authored Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete (Harvard Business Press, 2009). Dr. Read serves as a director of Allay Therapeutics, Glyscend Therapeutics, Global Kineticw and BioVentures for Global Health. 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.