Robert B. Shapiro

Robert Bernard Shapiro (August 4, 1938 – May 2, 2025) was an American businessman and attorney who worked extensively with the biochemical corporations G. D. Searle & Company and Monsanto.

Background Robert Bernard Shapiro was born in Manhattan, New York, on August 4, 1938, the son of businessman Moses Shapiro. He was educated at the Horace Mann School and earned a BA from Harvard University in 1959 and a JD from Columbia Law School in 1962.

In 1979, he became an attorney for the Illinois-based G. D. Searle.

Shapiro was a co-founder of Sandbox Industries, a Chicago-based business incubator and venture fund manager in 2003, and served as one of its managing directors. He was on the board of Conservis, a Sandbox funded firm.

Shapiro was an early member of the board of directors of Theranos, the company created by Elizabeth Holmes.

Personal life and death Shapiro was married four times – divorces from Janet Ross, Berta Gordon, and Kemery Bloom preceded his final marriage to Ginger Farley – and had four children. He had two children from his marriage to Gordon - including Jim Shapiro and Nina Gordon from the band Veruca Salt - and two from his marriage to Bloom.