Apple adds Genentech boss to board

Apple was clearly so impressed with Genentech chairman and CEO Arthur D Levinson's performance in their Power Mac G4 Cube promotional video that the company has given him a place on its board.

Levinson gushed so freely on the style, elegance and coolness of the Cube, that Apple CEO Steve Jobs obviously felt he was so on message he deserved a place in the Mac maker's 'star chamber' of directors.

Genentech is one of the world's leading biotech companies, using genetic engineering techniques to create new medical drugs. Levinson has been with the company since 1980. In 1995, he'd worked his way up to become CEO and president. Last year he also became chairman of Genentech's board.

Levinson's arrival on the Apple board will bring to the company a valuable perspective on the science and engineering market, an area it is keen to pursue, given both the computing power of the PowerPC 7400's AltiVec vector processing engine, which is well-suited to accelerating science-oriented applications, and the upcoming Unix-derived MacOS X. ®

For all The Register's latest Apple stories, check out our Mac Channel