Biography
Fred Gluck has successfully moved through a number of careers including ballistic missile defense, top management consulting, health care delivery, and engineering and construction. After moving to Montecito, Ca in 1998, Fred has also been active as an entrepreneur in biotech and medical equipment. In addition, he provides CEO
counseling on a retainer basis.
Fred was with McKinsey & Co. from 1967 to 1995 and led the Firm as its elected Managing Director (Global Senior Partner) from 1988 to 1994, when he retired and joined The Bechtel Group, where he served as Vice-Chairman and Director. Fred retired from Bechtel in July 1998. He then rejoined McKinsey as a consultant to the Firm and continued in that role until July 2003.
During his years at McKinsey, Fred consulted extensively with U.S., European, and Far East companies, with particular emphasis in the telecommunications, electronics, heavy machinery, and health care industries. He also led the Firm’s technology and strategic management practices for many years and wrote and spoke extensively on those subjects during that period. Fred’s contributions to the development of the discipline of corporate strategy are featured in Walter Kiechel’s book The Lords of Strategy.
During the 6 years he led the Firm, McKinsey doubled in size and greatly expanded its international presence, particularly in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Duff McDonald’s recent book about McKinsey, The Firm, describes Fred’s enduring contributions to that leading consultancy. McKinsey also recently established the annual Gluck Awards for Knowledge Building in the Firm and Fred was named the first Lifetime Award winner at a recent McKinsey conference of its former Senior Partners.
Before joining McKinsey, Fred spent 10 years with Bell Telephone Laboratories working in program management, systems analysis and engineering, and guidance systems design. At the time he left Bell Labs to join McKinsey, he was program manager for the Spartan anti-ICBM missile. In 1967, Bell Labs nominated Fred for the Eta Kappa Nu Award as the country’s Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer.
He was a founder of CytomX, LLC in 2006 and served as Chairman and CEO during the initial two years of technology development and market definition. In 2008, the company spun off Cynvenio, LLC and he continued as Chairman of both companies. CytomX Therapeutics was listed on NASDAQ in October of 2015. The CytomX platform enables advanced cancer drugs to be activated only within cancer cells substantially reducing toxic side effects. The company now has four drugs in clinical trials - three wholly owned and one partnered with Bristol- Myers Squibb (BMS). Similar partnerships have also been reached with Amgen, AbbVie and ImmunoGen which have brought in substantial up front, non-dilutive financing and technology that has created a very strong balance sheet with over $300 Million in cash and substantial opportunities for milestone payments from its partnerships. Cynvenio (renamed LungLife AI) is now listed on London’s AIM Exchange pursuing early diagnosis of lung cancer. Fred was also an investor in and Co-Chairman of the Board of TrueVision, the world leader in heads-up HDTV systems for computer-aided microsurgery until its recent sale to Alcon.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Manhattan College in 1957 and a master’s degree in the same field from New York University in 1959. In addition, Fred was working towards a PhD in operations research at Columbia University when he left Bell Labs to join McKinsey.
Fred retired in 2010 after 13 years of service as a director of AMGEN (Thousand Oaks, CA) [NASDAQ] and was the presiding director of HCA (Nashville, TN) [NY Stock Exchange] prior to its LBO in 2007. He was Vice-Chairman of New York Hospital prior to its merger with Columbia-Presbyterian and now enjoys Emeritus status after 47 years of service.
He is also active in eleemosynary activities in Santa Barbara, California, where he has served as a trustee (and Vice-Chairman) of the Cottage Health System, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Foundation, and as Founding Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics also at UCSB.