Bill Bowes has been a force in the US venture capital industry for more than 50 years. As a founder of the Silicon Valley–based U.S. Venture Partners, he helped launch a stellar list of medical and high-tech companies, including Amgen and Sun Microsystems. When asked to name the qualities that best define a successful entrepreneur, Bowes responds succinctly: “intelligence, desire, and unrelenting forward motion.”

His gift to HBS in 2012 helped fund a professorship that honors Howard H. Stevenson (MBA 1965, DBA 1969), a legendary faculty member who Bowes believes has exhibited all three of those qualities throughout his career as an entrepreneur and an HBS professor. “I have great respect for Howard and all that he has done for the School,” says Bowes, noting that he sees Stevenson as a founding father of HBS’s work in the field of entrepreneurship.

In tandem with his business career, Bowes has advanced numerous initiatives through his family foundation, including significant support for stem cell research at Harvard.

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