Director, State Government Affairs
Genentech

Todd Kaufman is Director of State Government Affairs for Genentech, Inc. of South San Francisco. In that role, he is responsible for overseeing the biotechnology company’s lobbying activities in all 50 states and for identifying lobbying priorities.

Prior to joining Genentech, Todd was the Director of Government and External Affairs for the California Optometric Association. He negotiated a landmark expansion of the scope of optometric practice with the California Academy of Ophthalmology and the California Medical Association. Prior to joining the Optometric Association, Todd served as a senior policy advisor to California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown on growth management issues and led an innovative public policy medication project known as the Growth Management Consensus Project involving over 30 stakeholder groups.

Todd’s public policy career spans more than 20 years of work in the public and private sectors working on a variety of issues including the state budget, local government finance, land development, environmental protection, corrections, veterans’ affairs and the arts.

He began his work as a legislative intern for the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee, working on foreign affairs issues for Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd while obtaining his Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Todd has also earned a B.A in History from Washington University (St. Louis) and a Masters in American History from the University of Chicago.

Todd lives in Sacramento with his wife, an attorney with the Court of Appeal. His younger son is a junior at Vassar College and his older son, a recent graduate of Stanford University, is a legislative advocate in Washington, D.C.