Illumina
said CEO Francis deSouza resigned from the gene sequencing company as of Sunday as the firm fights regulators over a deal that has also been the target of an activist campaign by Carl
Icahn.
The company said in a statement that its board had accepted deSouza’s resignation and that Charles Dadswell, Illumina’s general counsel, will step in as interim CEO while it conducts a search inside and outside the company for a new one. The firm said deSouza will stay as an advisor until the end of July.
“We thank Francis for his contributions and leadership, and are very excited about embarking on the next chapter of Illumina’s great journey,” said Stephen P. MacMillan, chair of Illumina’s board. “Illumina’s technology remains at the forefront of DNA sequencing and has continued to set the pace for the industry. We are confident Illumina can continue to execute on its goals while we conduct and complete a CEO search process.”
In his own statement, deSouza said: “We have made great progress together, but I believe we are still at the very beginning of the impact Illumina will have on human health by unlocking the power of the genome.” He joined Illumina in 2013 and became CEO in 2016.
Illumina
(ticker: ILMN) has been in a battle with regulators over its $7 billion deal for cancer test maker Grail. Both the Federal Trade Commission and the European Union rejected the deal on competitive grounds. Illumina is fighting that in an appeal but at the same time making plans to divest Grail if it doesn’t succeed.
Activist investor Carl Icahn waged a partially successful proxy battle with Illumina this spring. Last month, shareholders backed one of his three nominees onto the company’s board and voted down the reelection of board Chairman John Thompson.
Icahn wanted to replace deSouza with Illumina’s former CEO Jay Flatley, according to an interview he gave The Wall Street Journal in March.
Icahn employee Andrew Teno won a seat on Illumina’s board. “We appreciate the constructive shareholder feedback throughout this process and are committed to delivering on our plan to accelerate shareholder value creation,” Illumina said in a statement last month.
In a tweet on Sunday, Icahn said he was “happy to see” the recent events at Illumina. “While obviously I believe the change of CEO should have come meaningfully sooner, it is still a very positive occurrence.”
Write to Liz Moyer at [email protected]
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