LA JOLLA, CA—The La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) is pleased to announce that visionary business leader Richard S. Bodman has been elected to its Board of Directors.
“We are delighted to welcome Dick Bodman to our board,” said Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., La Jolla Institute president and chief scientific officer. “Dick has been a leader in some of the most important areas of American industry, including cell phone technology, satellite communications and venture capital. He’s also served his country through high level positions in the Nixon administration.”
Richard Bodman, who holds a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University and a M.S. in industrial management for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, currently is managing general partner of VMS Group, which provides administrative and advisory services to more than 100 venture capital funds. He is also chairman of TDF Ventures, which manages several telecommunications venture capital funds and co-founder and chairman of PurThread Technologies, Inc., a maker of antimicrobial textile products for the healthcare community and consumer use. Bodman is also general manager of Bodman Oil and Gas LLC.
Bodman retired in 1996 as senior vice president of AT&T for Corporate Strategy & Development, a member of AT&T’s Management Executive Committee and lead director of Sandia National Laboratories. Simultaneously, he acquired AT&T Ventures, which he had founded at AT&T, and became its co-managing partner. The firm was renamed Venture Management Services.
Prior to AT&T, Bodman was CFO of The Communications Satellite Corp. (COMSAT) and, subsequently, president and CEO of Comsat General Corp. and President of Satellite Television Corp. Bodman served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Nixon administration.
Bodman, who already supports medical research through his membership on the board of The Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, Calif., says he is looking forward to assisting the LJI’s efforts in the field of immunology.
“I was immediately impressed with Institute’s very ambitious goal of ‘Life Without Disease,’” Bodman says. “What I quickly learned is that it’s not just a brilliant concept, but a highly organized, potentially life-changing process that is well under way at the Institute. It’s extremely exciting to see that their scientists have already achieved some critical breakthroughs in understanding the immune system. Drawing on my own experience in technology, I think they’re at the same point high tech was 15 years ago before it took off. I think the Institute and the field of immunology are just about ready to explode with truly groundbreaking advancements that will have amazing implications for humanity in terms of preventing and curing some of the most challenging diseases we face.”
Bodman and his wife, former TV journalist Karna Small Bodman, who served President Ronald as Senior Director of the National Security Council, maintain residences in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., Naples, Fla., and Washington, D.C.
ABOUT LA JOLLA INSTITUTE
La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988 as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made numerous advances leading towards its goal: life without disease®.
