Dick Levy

Last updated

Richard "Dick" Meyer Levy (born 1938) was the chief executive officer of Varian Medical Systems from 1999 to 2006 and was chairman of Varian Medical Systems' board of directors from 2002 until February 2014. Levy led the company during a period of rapid growth after it was spun off from Varian Inc. in 1999. Described as a "hands-on CEO", Levy was known to visit every one of his companies facilities, and he took steps to empower employees. [1] Under his leadership, the company nearly tripled in size, and now dominates the medical radiation equipment market worldwide. Levy retired as CEO and was succeeded by Timothy E. Guertin in February 2006. [2]

Levy has been described as a scientist and businessman of "remarkable vision and tenacious pragmatism" whose work led to the success of the Linac as a medical device, and to significant advances in radiation oncology. [3] His "managerial astuteness" was an important element of Varian's commercial success in the medical field. [3]

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Levy graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and received his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, California. [4] Married to Susan Lewis Levy since 1964, he began his employment with the Varian companies in 1968.

Levy's compensation in 2004 amounted to $9,540,851 and in 2005 it exceeded $19,320,000, making him one of Silicon Valley's wealthiest executives.

Awards

A well-known philanthropist, Levy was given the 2010 David Packard Award for civic engagement by the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network. [4]

In 2003, Levy was an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Recipient for the Northern California Region. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Valley</span> Technology hub in California, United States

Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of Santa Clara Valley. San Jose is Silicon Valley's largest city, the third-largest in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States; other major Silicon Valley cities include Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Redwood City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Cupertino. The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institution, and, as of June 2021, has the highest percentage of homes valued at $1 million or more in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairchild Semiconductor</span> American integrated circuit manufacturer

Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, it became a pioneer in the manufacturing of transistors and of integrated circuits. Schlumberger bought the firm in 1979 and sold it to National Semiconductor in 1987; Fairchild was spun off as an independent company again in 1997. In September 2016, Fairchild was acquired by ON Semiconductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinod Khosla</span> American businessman

Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.

Richard Marco Kovacevich is an American business executive and the former CEO of Wells Fargo & Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Poizner</span> American businessman

Stephen Leo Poizner is an American businessman, technology entrepreneur and former Republican California Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate. Poizner also was an independent candidate in the 2018 California Insurance Commissioner election.

<i>Metro Silicon Valley</i> Free weekly newspaper

Metro is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as Metro Silicon Valley, as well as Metroactive online, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print form, Metro can be downloaded in PDF format for free from the publisher's website. Metro also keeps tabs on local politics and the "chattering" class of San Jose through its weekly column, The Fly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nat Goldhaber</span> American politician

A. Nathaniel ("Nat") Goldhaber is an American venture capitalist, computer entrepreneur and politician. Goldhaber helped found Maharishi International University and was special assistant to lieutenant governor William Scranton III and founder and chief executive of TOPS, a computer networking company. He served as president of the venture capital firm Cole Gilburne Goldhaber & Ariyoshi Management and was the founding CEO of CyberGold, an Internet marketing company that became a public stock offering in 1999. He was the 2000 U.S. Vice President candidate for the Natural Law Party and serves as the managing director of Claremont Creek Ventures, an investment firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varian Medical Systems</span> American healthcare company

Varian Medical Systems is an American radiation oncology treatments and software maker based in Palo Alto, California. Their medical devices include linear accelerators (LINACs) and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies software for managing cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers, and medical oncology practices. Varian Medical Systems employs more than 7,100 people at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sites globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumar Malavalli</span>

Kumar Malavalli is an Indian American technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 1995, he founded Brocade Communications Systems with Paul Bonderson Jr. He currently serves as chairman of C3DNA Inc. and as a partner at VKRM Services, a boutique investment firm. He has also served on the boards of the Storage Networking Industry Association and the Fibre Channel Industry Association.

John R. Adler is an American neurosurgeon.

Varian Associates was one of the first high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first vacuum tube which could amplify electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies, and other electromagnetic equipment. Varian Associates split into three companies in 1999: Varian Medical Systems, Varian, Inc. and Varian Semiconductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Clara County, California</span> County in California, United States

Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together form the U.S. Census Bureau's San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the larger San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area. Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Northern California. The county seat and largest city is San Jose; with about 1,000,000 residents, it is the 10th-most populous city in the United States, California's third-most populous city and the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The second- and third-largest cities are Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell and Sigurd Varian</span> American brothers

Russell Harrison Varian and Sigurd Fergus Varian were American brothers who founded one of the earliest high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. Born to theosophist parents who helped lead the utopian community of Halcyon, California, they grew up in a home with multiple creative influences. The brothers showed an early interest in electricity, and after independently establishing careers in electronics and aviation they came together to invent the klystron, which became a critical component of radar, telecommunications and other microwave technologies.

David Kitping Lam is a Chinese-born American technology entrepreneur. He founded Lam Research Corporation in 1980. He presently serves as Chairman of Multibeam Corporation, which manufactures complementary electron beam lithography (CEBL) systems. He also heads the David Lam Group, an investor and business advisor for high-growth technology companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helder Antunes</span>

Hélder Fragueiro Antunes is a Portuguese-American executive, computer scientist, and former racecar driver. A Cisco Systems executive for over twenty years, as well as founder and first Chairman of the OpenFog Consortium, Antunes currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Crowdkeep. His car racing career in the 1980s and '90s made him one of the most preeminent open road racers at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Valley Bank</span> American commercial bank

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was a state-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Santa Clara, California that failed on March 10, 2023, with holdings now managed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). SVB was the 16th-largest bank in the United States and was the largest bank by deposits in Silicon Valley. SVB operated branches in California and Massachusetts. The bank composed the primary business of SVB Financial Group, its publicly traded bank holding company which, with other subsidiaries, operated offices in 13 additional U.S. states and in over a dozen international jurisdictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Kurtzig</span> American businesswoman and technology entrepreneur

Sandra L. Kurtzig is an American businesswoman and technology entrepreneur. She was one of Silicon Valley's first female entrepreneurs, and as the founder of the business and manufacturing software producer ASK Group in 1972, was the first woman to take a Silicon Valley technology company public.

Bruce McWilliams is an American business executive and serial entrepreneur specializing in technology. He has co-founded and managed multiple companies in the field of electronics, semiconductor, packaging and display. McWilliams is currently Chief Executive Officer of Bossa Nova Robotics, the leading developer of service robots for the global retail industry and Chairman of TetraVue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Mahan</span> American politician and tech entrepreneur (born 1982)

Matthew Mahan is an American politician and tech entrepreneur, now serving his first term as the Mayor of San Jose. He previously served as the District 10 Councilmember representing the Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley, and Vista Park neighborhoods. Mahan also served as the co-founder and CEO of Brigade Media, a tech company focused on civic engagement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory W. Becker</span> California banking executive

Gregory W. Becker is an American business executive who has served as the CEO of SVB Financial Group since 2011. He also served as the final CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco before the bank's collapse in 2023.

References

  1. Jasinowski, Jerry; Hamrin, Robert (1996). Making it in America: proven paths to success from fifty top companies . Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-0-684-82473-4. Richard Levy Varian.
  2. Counts, Laura (April 29, 2007). "Varian's new hand is familiar". Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. San Jose, CA.
  3. 1 2 Rubin, Philip; L.S. Constine; L.B. Marks; P. Okunieff (2007). Late Effects of Cancer Treatment on Normal Tissues. Springer. pp. xii. ISBN   978-3-540-49069-2.
  4. 1 2 Jennings, Duffy. "Meet Dick Levy, Varian Medical Systems". Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  5. "15 Local Business Leaders Receive Awards for Their Success in Business And The Community.", PR Newswire, June 23, 2004. Web. April 13, 2015.