Steven H. Holtzman

Original Appointment: March 2004

Steven H. Holtzman is a founder and the executive chair of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ipi.com). He served as the company's founding CEO from its inceptioni n 2001 until 2010. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Infinity is an innovative cancer drug discovery and development company that leverages its strength in small molecule drug technologies to bring important new medicines to patients.

Prior to starting Infinity, from early 1994 to 2001, Holtzman was an early leader and the chief business officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pioneer in the development and application of modern genetic and genomic technologies to discover new drugs. In this role, at various times he was responsible for all of the non-R&D functions of the company. At its height, Millennium employed 2,000 people and had a market capitalization in excess of $15 billion.

Prior to joining Millennium, from 1986 to 1994, he was a founder and the executive vice president of DNX Corporation, the first commercial enterprise devoted to the development of agricultural, biomedical, and pharmaceutical applications of transgenic (genetically engineered) animal technology.

In the early 1980s, Holtzman conceived of and was the founding executive director of the Ohio Edison Program, the nation's first state government program directed to achieving economic development through funding young technology-based ventures and university/industry collaborative research and development efforts. The Edison program has been emulated by over 40 states.

In the late 1970s, he was an instructor and tutor in moral philosophy and the philosophy of language at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, U.K.

Holtzman cofounded and from 1995 to 2000 was the cochair of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Bioethics Committee. From 1996 to 2001, he served as a presidential appointee to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, the principal advisory body to the President and Congress on ethical issues in the biomedical and life sciences. From 1999 to 2008 he was a trustee of the Hastings Center for Ethics and Life Science and served as vice chairman.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), for which he cochairs the committee on reimbursement.

He is an author and editor (with Christopher Leich) of Wittgenstein: To Follow a Rule. He is a frequent author of articles and an invited speaker on topics ranging from bioethics to creative financing of biotechnology companies to entrepreneurship.

Holtzman received his B.A. in philosophy from Michigan State University and his B.Phil. graduate degree in philosophy from Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes scholar.

He is the father of two children, Niki and Bryan. His partner, professor Hilary Fraser, is executive dean of the School of Arts, Birkbeck College, University of London, where she also holds the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair in 19th-century studies.