Skip to Content

Big Spenders

These six men oversee more than $120 billion in research and technology investments in the United States.
May 1, 2005

These six men oversee more than $120 billion in research and technology investments in the United States.

/>
/>/>

JOHN LAMATTINA is the president of Pfizer Global Research and Development. Pfizer, headquartered in New York, NY, has the pharmaceutical industry’s largest R&D budget – $7.7 billion last year – and one of the largest among all corporations. Trained as a chemist, LaMattina now oversees more than 12,500 scientists at eight major research campuses and other smaller facilities in five countries.

MICHAEL WYNNE is the acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics at the U.S. Department of Defense. He advises the secretary and deputy secretary of defense on acquisition, R&D, and advanced-technology matters. The military’s budget for R&D and advanced-technology testing and evaluation for fiscal year 2005 is $69 billion./>/>

DON VALENTINE is a partner and the founder of Sequoia Capital, a leading technology venture capital firm in Menlo Park, CA. Sequoia completed 30 investment deals last year, making it one of the most active technology venture capital firms. Valentine founded the firm in 1972 and was an original investor in Apple Computer, Atari, and Oracle.

ANDREW VON ESCHENBACH is the director of the National Cancer Institute, the largest institute within the National Institutes of Health, with a 2005 budget of $4.8 billion. He is a urologic surgeon and a cancer survivor. He has made it a goal of his organization to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer by 2015./>/>

THEODORE POEHLER is the vice provost for research at Johns Hopkins University, whose total research budget this year is about $1.2 billion, the largest among U.S. universities. Trained as an electrical engineer, Poehler has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and a PhD, all from Johns Hopkins, and has spent almost his entire professional career with the university.

STEVE MCGAW was Cingular Wireless’s head of corporate development and the chief negotiator behind its acquisition of AT&T Wireless last year, in a deal worth $41 billion. This was the largest technology acquisition in the United States last year, and it made Cingular the number one U.S. wireless provider. McGaw is now senior vice president, supply chain, at Cingular./>/>/>/>

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.