William Rastetter, Ph.D. Partner Office: Palo Alto Email William Education S.B., Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Lambda Upsilon M.A., Chemistry, Harvard University Ph.D., Chemistry, Harvard University

Bill Rastetter joined Venrock in 2006 and comes to Venrock from Biogen Idec, where he was most recently executive chairman.  Bill joined Idec Pharmaceuticals at its founding and grew it to a multi-billion-dollar market valuation company, while serving as president and CEO.  Prior to Idec, he was Director of Corporate Ventures at Genentech, Inc. and served in a scientific capacity at Genentech.  Adding to his corporate background, Bill held various faculty positions at MIT, won the award for “Excellence in the Teaching of Chemistry” at Harvard and is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.  Bill is the author of numerous scientific papers and patent applications in the fields of organic and bio-organic chemistry, protein and enzyme engineering, and biotechnology.

Bill currently serves on the board of Illumina, a Venrock alumni investment.

"I've always focused on not only building companies, but also building sustainable corporate cultures that nurture the informed risk taking that drives growth, both for the corporation and for the individual entrepreneur.  These cultures embrace change as a constant and see change as opportunity rather than threat.  The corporation or the individual that always expects the world to be different tomorrow is better prepared to lead rather than follow trends and sea changes in their fields.  This, I believe, is the key to successful entrepreneurship."