At Illumina, our core values stem from innovation, discovery, and collaboration.
As an executive team, we strive to deliver the genomic technologies and trusted solutions that deepen our understanding of genetics and promise to shift the future of health care and beyond.
Francis deSouza
President & Chief Executive Officer
Francis deSouza was appointed President & CEO of Illumina in 2016 and is responsible for directing all aspects of company strategy, planning, and operations. He initially joined the company as President in 2013, and led Illumina’s business units and core functions responsible for envisioning, developing and producing the company’s products.
Previously, deSouza served as President of Products and Services at Symantec Corporation, where he was responsible for driving the vision for the company’s market-leading portfolio and served in a variety of executive roles. He joined Symantec through the acquisition of IMlogic, where he was co-founder and CEO.
Prior to joining IMlogic, deSouza was co-founder and CEO of Flash Communications, a provider of corporate instant messaging that was acquired by Microsoft. Following the acquisition, he joined Microsoft and led the team responsible for the development of the company’s enterprise real-time collaboration offerings. Currently, he is a member of the board of directors for The Walt Disney Company.
Francis deSouza received a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Charles Dadswell
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
Charles (Chuck) Dadswell is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Illumina, where he has worldwide responsibility for all legal and intellectual property matters and is also Illumina's code of ethics compliance officer.
Before joining Illumina, Dadswell was Vice President, General Counsel for North and Latin America and Corporate Director of Global Intellectual Property at bioMerieux. He was previously General Counsel of BioDelivery Sciences International, a specialty pharmaceutical company, and oversaw US intellectual property in a variety of positions with Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome and GlaxoSmithKline.
Dadswell received an LL.M. in patent law and trade regulation from The George Washington University Law School, a J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School and a B.S. in Pharmacy from Ferris State University.
Paula Dowdy
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Commercial Operations—Europe, Middle East and Africa
Paula Dowdy is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Commercial Operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since joining Illumina in August 2016, Dowdy has reorganized the business, identified new markets and returned the region to sustainable growth. In addition, Dowdy played a pivotal role as a senior leader with the launch of the NovaSeq.
Previously, Dowdy was Senior Vice President for Cloud, Software, and Managed Services at Cisco where she drove numerous innovative solutions. During her 20-year tenure at Cisco, she held numerous leadership roles, spearheading product, software and service groups for virtually all customer segments. Having spent the majority of her career in Europe, Dowdy currently resides in London.
Dowdy holds a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University and an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Garret Hampton, PhD
Senior Vice President, Clinical Genomics
Garret Hampton joined Illumina in 2017 and leads the company's Clinical Genomics Group, which includes the Reproductive and Genetic Health and Oncology Businesses, Regulatory, Clinical and Medical Affairs, CLIA Labs, and the Chief Medical Officer's organization.
Before joining Illumina, he held a variety of leadership positions at Genentech, Inc., and was most recently Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Biomarker Development and Companion Diagnostics. He previously held scientific and management roles at Celgene Corporation, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and Genos Biosciences.
Hampton holds a BA in natural sciences and genetics and an MA in natural sciences from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and a PhD in cancer genetics from Imperial Cancer Research Fund and University College London.
Aimee Hoyt
Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer
Aimee Hoyt is Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Illumina, where she is responsible for all aspects of the company’s HR strategies. Hoyt has a successful track record for leading workforce transformation, driving business growth and creating high-impact teams.
Previously, she has held senior positions at some of the world’s best-known technology companies including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Sun Microsystems. Most recently, she was the Chief Human Resources Officer at Rackspace, a leading managed cloud computing company, in San Antonio, Texas. She led the HR team and was responsible for helping build, align and develop high-performing global teams. During her tenure, Rackspace was recognized as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, Top 30 Best Places in Tech and Great Places to Work for Millennials.
Hoyt earned a master’s in human resource development from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Omead Ostadan
Senior Vice President, Products, Marketing & Strategic Planning
Omead Ostadan is Senior Vice President of Marketing, Products and Strategic Planning for Illumina. A member of Illumina’s executive management team, Mr. Ostadan is responsible for central product development, as well as global operations and quality. Mr. Ostadan joined Illumina in 2007 as Vice President of Marketing and built the company’s marketing organization during a period of tremendous growth and diversification. In 2011 Mr. Ostadan assumed the role of Senior Vice President of Product Development and in 2015 his role expanded to include the company’s Global Operations and Quality functions.
Prior to joining Illumina, Mr. Ostadan was Vice President of Marketing at Solexa Inc., where he played a central role in the development of the company’s product and commercial strategy. Prior to joining Solexa Inc. in 2005, Mr. Ostadan held a variety of marketing roles at Applied Biosystems over a nearly 10 year span, including responsibility for managing the company’s high throughput sequencing platforms.
Mr. Ostadan earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Davis and his M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Li Qing
Vice President and General Manager, Greater China
Li Qing is the Vice President and General Manager of Greater China at Illumina. In his role, Qing is responsible for leading and developing the commercial organization within China, which is a priority growth region for Illumina. Qing oversees all aspects of Illumina’s growth strategy including manufacturing, market development and access, medical and regulatory affairs, regional marketing, competitive positioning, and product launches among others. Qing brings more than 25 years of unparalleled experience in leadership, business management and developing organizations’ capabilities to strengthen market opportunities within the pharmaceutical and life science industries. He has held numerous senior level positions for a number of global companies including GE Healthcare, Baxter,Novartis, and Solvay.
Most recently Qing was General Manager for Life Sciences at GE Healthcare China. He led more than five business units, covering four customer segments across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Qing received an Executive MBA from the China Europe International Business School.
Bob Ragusa
Senior Vice President, Global Quality & Operations
Bob Ragusa is Senior Vice President of Global Quality & Operations for Illumina where he is responsible for the company’s operations serving clinical and research customers. His organization includes the Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, and Life Cycle Management global teams who are committed to ensure high product quality and customer satisfaction.
Prior to joining Illumina, Ragusa was Executive Vice President of Engineering and Global Operations at Accuray, a radiation oncology company, where he and his team were responsible for the development, manufacturing and distribution of innovative precision treatment solutions. Ragusa served as Senior Vice President of Global Operations for Applied Biosystems from 1997 until 2005.
Ragusa currently serves on Board of Directors for Twist Biosciences. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Connecticut as well as a Master of Science in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Mostafa Ronaghi, PhD
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
Mostafa Ronaghi, Ph.D., joined Illumina in August 2008. As Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, he is responsible for leading internal research and technology development (RTD) and is co-founder of Illumina Accelerator, the world’s first business accelerator focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry.
Ronaghi is an experienced entrepreneur and was involved in founding several start-ups in the life sciences companies. Most recently, he led the formation internally at Illumina of GRAIL Bio, a new company formed to enable cancer screening from a simple blood test. In 2007, Ronaghi co-founded Avantome, a privately held sequencing company (acquired by Illumina in 2008). Before this, he co-founded NextBio, a search engine for life science data (acquired by Illumina in 2013). In 2001, Ronaghi co-founded ParAllele Bioscience, which was eventually acquired by Affymetrix, Inc., and was involved in the development and commercialization of highly multiplexed technology for genetic testing. In 1997, he co-founded Pyrosequencing AB, which was renamed to Biotage in 2003, and led the company to a successful initial public offering in June 2000 on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Ronaghi was a principal investigator at Stanford University from 2002 until 2008 and focused on the development of novel tools for molecular diagnostic applications. He serves on the board of directors of BaseHealth and Clear Labs. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of GRAIL Bio.
Ronaghi earned his Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. He holds more than 30 (pending and issued) patents and has written more than 90 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books.
Sam Samad
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Sam Samad joined Illumina in 2017 and holds the role of SVP and Chief Financial Officer with responsibility for the company’s finance, accounting, investor relations, internal audit, treasury, facilities and global information systems functions.
Before joining Illumina, Samad held several senior leadership positions at Cardinal Health including Senior Vice President and Corporate Treasurer, leading all tax and treasury functions. During his tenure as Treasurer, Samad also had operational and financial responsibility for Cardinal Health’s China business. Prior to that, Samad served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Cardinal Health’s $85B pharmaceutical segment, among other leadership roles. Prior to Cardinal Health, Samad spent thirteen years at Eli Lilly and Company, in a variety of sales and finance roles, both domestically and internationally, including his role as Chief Financial Officer of the Canada affiliate prior to leaving Eli Lilly. Samad started his career at Pepsico Inc.
Samad holds a BBA degree from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and an MBA from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.
Samad is currently a member of the Board of Visitors at the Owen Graduate School of Management.
Mark Van Oene
Senior Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer
Mark Van Oene is Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Illumina, a position he has held since 2017. Presently, Van Oene is also the acting General Manager for Greater China. He is responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s commercial strategy and is responsible for world-wide sales, services and marketing. Van Oene was previously Illumina’s Senior Vice President of the Americas region and subsequently named interim Chief Commercial Officer in late 2016. Van Oene joined Illumina in 2006 as Regional Account Manager for Canada. In 2008, he assumed the role of Senior Director of Sales for the Americas and was promoted to Vice President with responsibility for global sales in 2012. In early 2014, Van Oene was named the General Manager for the Americas region, advancing to Senior Vice President in April 2016.
Prior to Illumina, Van Oene was Director, Genotyping Services for Ellipsis Biotherapeutics.
Van Oene earned a B.S. in biochemistry from Western University and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto in Molecular and Medical Genetics.
Gretchen Weightman
Vice President & General Manager—Asia Pacific & Japan
Gretchen Weightman is the Vice President and General Manager of Commercial Operations for Asia Pacific and Japan at Illumina. In her role, Weightman is responsible for leading and developing the commercial organization within the region that includes Japan, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, and India.
Weightman has held several leadership positions within Illumina prior to her current role. She was the Director of Sales for Asia Pacific, where she was responsible for sales of the Asia Pacific region, overseeing five geographical districts for orders, shipments and revenue. Prior to this, Weightman was the Senior Marketing Manager for South Asia Pacific, responsible for the overall marketing strategy and implementation in South East Asia, India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
Prior to joining Illumina, Weightman worked at Applied Biosystems in a variety of commercial positions including Sales, Marketing, and Product Management. Her professional career started at Genesis Research & Development where she set up the high-throughput sequencing facility.
Weightman graduated from Auckland University with a BSc in Molecular Genetics and a Diploma of Commerce.