Enriquez, Juan 1959–

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Enriquez, Juan 1959–

(Juan Cabot Enriquez)

PERSONAL: Born 1959, in Mexico; son of Antonio and Marjorie Enriquez-Savignac. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1981, M.B.A., 1986.

ADDRESSES: Office—Biotechonomy, LLC, 30 Washington St., Wellesley Hills, MA 02481. E-mail—jenriquez@biotechonomy.com.

CAREER: Urban Development Corp., Mexico City, Mexico, chief executive officer, 1988–94; State of Chiapas, Mexico, peace negotiator, 1994; Harvard University Business School, Cambridge, MA, researcher, 1996–98, and founding director of Life Sciences Project; Biotechonomy, LLC (life sciences research and investment firm), Wellesley Hills, MA, chair and CEO; Synthetic Genomics, Rockville, MD, president, 2005–. Researcher and member of visiting committee, David Rockefeller Center, Harvard University, 1998; member of genetics advisory council, Harvard Medical School. Member of board of directors, Cabot Corporation, Chairman's International Council of the Americas Society, Tufts University's EPIIC, Harvard Business School's PAPSAC, J. Craig Venter Foundation, Institute for Genomic Research, and J. Craig Venter Institute.

AWARDS, HONORS: Harvard Business School Interactive citation, for "one of the best and most charismatic teachers" at Harvard Business School.

WRITINGS:

As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth (nonfiction) Crown Business (New York, NY), 2001.

The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future (nonfiction), Crown (New York, NY), 2005.

Also contributor to periodicals, including Harvard Business Review, 1999, and author of working papers.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A Little Book about the Big Picture, a book on the genome revolution; Flags, Borders, Anthems, and Other Myths.

SIDELIGHTS: Juan Enriquez is one of the leading figures in the field of life sciences in general and genetics in particular. As the founding director of the Harvard Business School's Life Sciences Project, he was intimately involved in the Human Genome Project. His special focus in his first book, As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth, is the business and scientific opportunities that mapping genetic sequences create. Enriquez focuses not just on the scientific advances the genome project makes possible, but also on the ways that making this information available may change the world. "As a fundamental technological change," declared a contributor to Genomics Newswire, "genomics cuts across almost all types of business, ranging from health care and pharmaceuticals to insurance and law enforcement. Genomics is a powerful force that will profoundly affect our personal lives and the global economy." "The impact of genomics is becoming so broad on society, and the debates are coming up so quickly—the Senate hearings [on human cloning] …, or anthrax, or antibiotic resistence—there's things in the newspaper every day," Enriquez concluded in the Genomics Newswire interview, "and people just don't have a have a context for them. I wanted to get a much broader audience, because otherwise it's very easy to scare people."

Critics remarked on the ways in which the author downplays heavy science in order to make his subject accessible to a broad audience. "Enriquez's ideas are well researched and presented in a simple manner so that the reader can understand exactly what point the author is getting at," wrote Adam Backstrom in Futurics. "The concepts are presented in layman's terms, and are unpatronizing. This is important, as Enriquez is trying to convince his readers that he has some important clues about the future direction of our world." Enriquez tries to "alarm the complacent about the economic and business consequences of the emerging revolution in science and technology," explained Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor. "The issues that genomics brings up are so widespread," Enriquez told Genomics Newswire, "and my interest at this point is to get more people involved in the debate."

In some ways, The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future grew out of the implications of As the Future Catches You. In the latter Enriquez warned that the failure to keep up with technological advances could threaten the political existence of the United States. He makes readers aware of trends in American life and culture that threaten the unity of the American nation. His "thesis," reported a Kirkus Reviews contributor, is "that the U.S. may one day fall apart as denizens of blue states and red … discover that they really don't want to live in the same country." "Enriquez," wrote Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush, "is stunning and dazzling in his analysis of a nation on the brink of coming unglued."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Salon, October, 2002, Robbin McClain, review of As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth, p. 50.

Booklist, September 1, 2001, Gilbert Taylor, review of As the Future Catches You, p. 21; October 1, 2005, Vanessa Bush, review of The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future, p. 8.

Entrepreneur, November, 2001, Mark Henricks, "Face forward: Hey, Watch Where You're Going, Buddy! Opportunity Abounds on the Road Ahead," p. 28.

Fortune, October 28, 2002, Matthew Boyle, "Mr. Gene: It Will Pay to Become Fluent in Genomics, Says Juan Enriquez," review of As the Future Catches You, p. 186.

Futurics, Volume 28, issue 3/4, 2004, Adam Backstrom, review of As the Future Catches You, p. 103.

Genomics News Wire, December, 2001, "The GNW Interview: Juan Enriquez, Director, Life Sciences Program, Harvard University."

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2005, review of The Untied States of America, p. 1060.

Publishers Weekly, October 29, 2001, "October Publication," review of As the Future Catches You, p. 58; August 29, 2005, review of The Untied States of America, p. 41.

Technology Review, October, 2005, Spencer Reiss, "Bio Programming: Juan Enriquez's Company Creates New Organisms," p. 23.