Haseltine, William A.

William A. Haseltine (born October 17, 1944) is an American scientist, businessman, author, and philanthropist. He is known for his groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS and the human genome. Haseltine was a professor at Harvard Medical School, where he founded two research departments on cancer and HIV/AIDS. He is a founder of several biotechnology companies, including Cambridge Biosciences, The Virus Research Institute, ProScript, LeukoSite, Dendreon, Diversa, X-VAX, and Demetrix. He was a founder chairman and CEO of Human Genome Sciences, a company that pioneered the application of genomics to drug discovery. He is president of the Haseltine Foundation for Science and the Arts, and founder, chairman, and president of ACCESS Health International, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving access to high-quality health worldwide. In 2001 he was listed by Time Magazine as one of the world's 25 most influential business people, and in 2015 by Scientific American as one of the 100 most influential leaders in biotechnology.