Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> January 13, 2000
LEV J. LEYTES is the principal founder, Chairman of the Board of
Directors and CEO of LJL BioSystems, Inc., a life science technology
company, focused on supplying advanced infrastructure tools for
accelerated drug discovery. He has been responsible for developing and
implementing the company's strategy, recruiting a key technical and
senior management team, negotiating and closing multi-million dollar
corporate collaborations, setting market and product focus, and growing
revenues to reach the #41 ranking on Inc. 500's list of fastest growing
private companies. Mr. Leytes has been the leader in securing venture
financing, and taking the company public on the NASDAQ National Market
System (LJLB). LJL completed its initial public offering (IPO) in March
of 1998, with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities LLC, Hambrecht & Quist,
LLC, and Volpe Brown Whelan & Co, LLC, serving as underwriters. Since
the IPO, the company's revenues are growing on 80%+ annual basis. Prior
to founding LJL, Mr. Leytes held senior technical and management
positions at Beckman Coulter, Inc., a $1.5 billion market capitalization
life sciences company, and at Molecular Devices Corporation, a
successful bioanalytical instrumentation company, when it was a start-
up. Mr. Leytes holds an M.S. in engineering from the Moscow Engineering
Institute and has completed the Advanced Management College at Stanford
University's Graduate Business School. An inventor with several patents
in the field of life science technology, he has published papers, and is
an invited speaker at numerous investment, entrepreneurial and
technology forums. Profile
LJL BioSystems, just to set the stage for the readers.
Mr. Leytes: The company has been around for about 10 years.
