David Martin was a prominent member of the second generation of Genentech scientists. He arrived in 1983, seven years after the company’s formation, to assume the title of Vice President of research. Unlike most members of the first wave of Genentech scientists, he came from a well-established academic career, a full professorship in the departments of medicine and biochemistry at UCSF, and with an impressive list of publications, all of which he discusses in this oral history. Why then was he attracted to a job in industry, at the time considered less prestigious than a university position? Martin provides an answer in this history, one of the thirty-five on commercial biotechnology recorded to date for ROHO’s Program in Bioscience and Biotechnology Studies. He tells us that he had three considerations, common to academics of the early 1980s considering employment in the nascent biotechnology industry: would the research be basic enough to interest a university scientist? Would he be tainted by the contemporary stigma in academia concerning scientists in industry, and could he return to academia if he so desired? Bob Swanson, Genentech’s CEO, assuaged his fears in all three regards. Yes, he could have release time for his own research; yes, he was joining a company recognized by academics for its sterling record in cloning genes of medical importance; and yes, after three years, Martin could decide to return to academia. Underlying all this was the thrill and challenge of applying recombinant DNA in the production of phamaceuticals. So Martin came on a wave of high expectations only to rise and fall and rise again with the multiple problems of managing a group of accomplished and singularly independent scientists. Martin describes the spects of his position: reporting lines, intellectual property considerations, corporate culture, the interplay of research targets and financial constraints, the mistakes he made in handling complicated science projects and competitive personalities, and more. But Martin’s story does not end with Genentech. He briefly describes subsequent positions at DuPont Merck and Chiron Corporation and also his hand in founding a series of companies—Lynx Therapeutics, Eos, and GangaGen. Underlining the impermanence of positions in biotechnology, Martin who was chairman and CEO of GangaGen when we interviewed in 2004, has since left and founded another company, Abbott Antibiotics.