Kevin Kimberlin is chairman of Spencer Trask & Co., a technology firm. Kimberlin's career includes work with

Jonas Salk Jonas Edward Salk (; born Jonas Salk; October 28, 1914June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New ...

Walter Gilbert Walter Gilbert (born March 21, 1932) is an American biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate. Education and early life Walter Gilbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1932, into a Jewish family, the so ...

John Wennberg John E. "Jack" Wennberg (June 2, 1934 – March 10, 2024) was an American healthcare researcher who was a pioneer of unwarranted variation in the healthcare industry. In four decades of work, Wennberg has documented the geographic variation in the ...

and

Robert Langer Robert Samuel Langer Jr. FREng (born August 29, 1948) is an American biotechnologist, businessman, chemical engineer, chemist, and inventor. He is one of the nine Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was fo ...

Technology

In 1982, Kimberlin invested in

Millicom Millicom International Cellular SA is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider operating in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. Its main shareholder is Xavier Niel, a French billionaire who owns 40% of ...

, a startup selected by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

to demonstrate the feasibility of cellular telephony. As advisor to the CEO, he structured the first equity financing for Millicom, which started the Racal–Millicom joint venture —subsequently renamed Vodafone Group plc. Kimberlin co-founded Ciena Corporation with Optelecom and David R. Huber to commercialize the first dense wave division multiplexing ( DWDM) system, powered by Ciena’s patented dual-stage optical amplifier. As the common basis of all high-capacity fiber communications networks around the world, WDM contributed to growth of the Internet and serves as its foundation today. Prior to its public offering, Kimberlin was the sole general partner of Next Level Communications, a broadband access company, 20% owned by Kimberlin LLC and 80% owned by General Instrument Corporation. Kimberlin took Next Level through its IPO, achieving a market capitalization of $17 billion before it was acquired by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

in 2002.

Medicine

In 1986, Kimberlin co-founded the Immune Response Corporation with

. The Immune Response Corporation patented the basis of the first FDA approved cancer vaccine, and has contributed to developments in the field of

immunotherapy Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as ''activation immunotherapies,'' while immunotherap ...

. He then co-founded Myriad Genetics, the first human genome company, with Nobel Prize winner Dr.

, Peter Meldrum, and Dr. Mark Skolnick, the scientist who, with several colleagues, devised the gene-mapping technique that catalyzed the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

. Myriad Genetics received international acclaim by discovering the

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

gene,

BRCA1 Breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''BRCA1'' () gene. Orthologs are common in other vertebrate species, whereas invertebrate genomes may encode a more distantly related gene. ''BRCA1'' is a ...

Osiris Therapeutics Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. was an American company founded in March 1993 following the identification of Mesenchymal stem cell, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) by Dr. Arnold Caplan and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. ...

, also co-founded by Kevin Kimberlin, patented and developed the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC). As of June 2020, a search of MSC in ClinicalTrials.gov turned up 1,116 clinical trials registered to treat 928 different medical conditions. Using the MSC as a drug, Osiris received the world's first regulatory approval for a stem cell-based therapy. Kimberlin helped launch Health Dialog based on the research of

whose clinical studies precipitated the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. Health Dialog provided $130 million in support of Wennberg’s efforts to put patients in charge of their medical decisions. Health Dialog was recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Kimberlin supported Robert Langer in two of the three ventures he discusses in his biography. He was a founding shareholder in Langer's first company, Enzytech which later merged to form Alkermes, and the third largest shareholder in his InVivo Therapeutics.

Philanthropy

Kimberlin's philanthropic activities in environmental science, education, and creativity include the

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...

, Harvard University and

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, where Kimberlin serves as a lifetime honorary director.

Personal life

In 2014, Kimberlin was reported as one of a number of "prominent investors hohave taken to Transcendental Meditation". He received his Bachelor of Sciences degree from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

and his master's degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

References

External links

Spencer Trask & Co.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimberlin, Kevin American chief executives of financial services companies American philanthropists Harvard Business School alumni Living people American venture capitalists Year of birth missing (living people)