Kevin W. Sharer (born March 2, 1948), is an American businessman who was chairman/CEO of the biotechnology company

Amgen Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. One of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen was established in T ...

from 2000 to 2012. He later joined the faculty of Harvard Business School teaching RC Strategy and General Management.

Education

Sharer studied aeronautical engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1970 with a BSAE. In 1971 he received an MS in aeronautical engineering from the US Naval Postgraduate School. He received his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business is the graduate school, graduate business school of the University of Pittsburgh located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although business education had its origins at the university in 1907, the Graduate ...

in 1983.

Career

Sharer served in the navy from 1970 through 1978. He served on two nuclear submarines. At the age of 27, he became construction engineer officer on the USS ''Memphis'' (SSN-691) and served as part of the commissioning crew. He left the navy with the rank of

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

. From 1978 to 1982, Sharer worked at

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

Long Lines in engineering and sales management. Sharer was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, from 1982 to 1984 in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1989 Sharer worked at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

(GE). He left as a corporate vice president to join

MCI Communications MCI Communications Corp. (originally Microwave Communications, Inc.) was a telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States. MCI was instrumen ...

. He was at MCI from 1989 to 1992 with responsibility for sales and marketing and as GM of the business markets division. Sharer joined the

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

firm

in 1992 as president /

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

and board member. From 2000 to 2012 he was chairman/CEO of Amgen. Sharer joined the faculty of Harvard Business School in 2012 and has taught courses in strategy and general management to MBA and executive education students. Sharer co-wrote with Adam Bryant ''The CEO Test'', which was published by Harvard.

Personal

With his wife, Sharer started the Sharer Foundation, which provides financial and programmatic support to community college students who transfer to a four-year university to earn their Bachelor's degree.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharer, Kevin W American chief executives Businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business alumni Living people Amgen 1948 births United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers Biotechnologists American chief operating officers McKinsey & Company people