Sustainable collaboration

William (Bill) Sullivan ’72 believes that the many of the world’s most pressing issues, such as environmental sustainability, food safety, disease discovery and treatment, can be solved with innovative technologies and the right collaborations.  Sullivan is president and CEO of Agilent Technologies, a company with a reputation as a leading laboratory partner to its customers in environment, energy, pharmaceutical, life sciences, diagnostics and academic research markets.

Sullivan has facilitated successful collaborations between UC Davis and Agilent, which is ranked as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. The partnership has resulted in everything from creating a publicly available genetic database of the most common foodborne diseases to developing new techniques for analyzing breast milk.

Sullivan and his wife Linda were personally inspired by The Campaign for UC Davis to establish a scholarship fund for environmental sciences to cultivate the future leaders of sustainability.

“There is a strong collaborative spirit throughout UC Davis,” Bill Sullivan said. “This interdisciplinary culture provides the perfect setting for the environmental teaching and research that is important to me personally.”

They also believe in the power of providing annual unrestricted support to sustain UC Davis’ excellence.  Sullivan has provided leadership for the Campaign for UC Davis as a member of the Campaign Cabinet.

“As a corporate leader, I understand the need to move quickly to seize new opportunities as they arise,” he explains.  “Unrestricted gifts allow UC Davis to do just that, by giving the chancellor the flexibility to respond quickly as needs change and opportunities arise.”