Diekman named new trustee

John D. Diekman, a founder and managing partner of 5AM Ventures in Menlo Park, California, has been named a member of Caltech’s Board of Trustees.

5AM Ventures is a seed and early-stage fund that focuses on creating and building biotechnology companies. The fund focuses on companies that may be too young to work with larger venture capital funds and that need hands-on assistance.

Diekman has a long-running respect for Caltech that dates back to his days as a kid growing up in the Midwest. “My mother, who did not go to college, always told me to go to Caltech to get my education,” he says. “She read constantly, and envied people who could pursue a science education at a world-class university.

“But at the time we couldn’t afford the long trips to California from Cincinnati. The East Coast was closer, and I was able to hitchhike back and forth between home and Princeton.”

What he finds special about Caltech, Diekman says, is the quality of its teaching, as well as its research. “So for me, it is truly an honor and pleasure to be associated with one of the best teaching and research institutions in the world,” he says.

After receiving his AB in chemistry from Princeton, Diekman went on to earn his PhD, also in chemistry, from Stanford University. A founder and former vice chair of Bay City Capital, he is also chair of Bio*One Capital; a general partner of the Aravis Venture I, a European-based life science venture fund; and a board member of several other organizations, including Affymetrix Inc., which develops systems for genetic analysis in the life sciences.
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