Francis deSouza

American businessman
Francis deSouza
deSouza in 2017
Born
Francis Aurelio deSouza

(1970-12-02) December 2, 1970 (age 53)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B./S.M.)
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur and business executive
Years active1991–present
Employer(s)SynthLabs, formerly Illumina, Symantec, IMLogic, Microsoft, Flash

Francis Aurelio deSouza (/ˈdʌsuːzɑː/; born December 2, 1970) is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is co-founder of SynthLabs, and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Illumina.[1][2]

Before Illumina, deSouza was president of products and services at Symantec.[3][4] He joined Symantec in 2006 when Symantec acquired IMlogic, where deSouza was founder and CEO.[5] Prior to IMlogic, deSouza worked at Microsoft from 1998 to 2001 after Microsoft acquired Flash Communications, where deSouza was co-founder and CEO.[6]

Personal life

He was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to a mother of Ethiopian and Greek descent, Elpinki, and an Indian father, Domingos. He was the second of five children.[7] His mother was a homemaker and his father was a commercial representative for Japanese trading company Itochu. Before he was 5, his family moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[8]

In 1987, at age 16, he graduated from St. Mary's Catholic High School, Dubai, UAE[9] and was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[10] He graduated Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi from MIT in 1992 with Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and computer science and a minor in economics.[11]

Desouza was divorced in 2017 and has 2 children. Desouza invested in bitcoin in 2013 and the division of their cryptocurrency assets in the divorce became a subject of dispute, drawing attention to how cryptocurrency assets are treated in divorce.[12][13]

Career

Early in his career, he worked at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and then in management consulting.[14][non-primary source needed]

Flash Communications

In 1997 DeSouza co-founded and was CEO of Flash Communications, a provider of corporate instant messaging that was acquired by Microsoft in 1998.[15]

Microsoft

Following Microsoft's acquisition of Flash, deSouza joined Microsoft and became a product unit manager, where he led the team responsible for the development of the company's enterprise real-time collaboration offerings, including instant messaging, chat, voice over IP and NetMeeting.[16]

IMlogic

DeSouza left Microsoft in 2001 and founded IMlogic, where he was CEO[17] and grew the company into the market leading provider of instant messaging security.[18]

Symantec

DeSouza joined Symantec through the company's acquisition of IMlogic in February 2006.[19] DeSouza was president of products and services at Symantec until November 11, 2013.[20][21] He led the research, product management, engineering, customer support and operations for Symantec's offerings, which generated $6.73 billion in revenue in FY11.[22]

Illumina

DeSouza was appointed president of Illumina, Inc. in November 2013, leading the company in envisioning, developing, and producing products.[23] In 2016, he was also appointed CEO.[24] On June 11, 2023, DeSouza announced that he was leaving Illumina. [25]

SynthLabs

DeSouza co-founded SynthLabs in July 2023, a startup developing technology for an auditable, transparent and robust AI alignment platform.[26] SynthLabs' investors include Microsoft's M12 and First Spark Ventures.[27]

Board member

He was on the Board of Directors of Citrix Systems from December 2014 to June 2016,[28] and on the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company[29] from February 2018 to April 2024.[29]

Accolades and recognition

  • Top CEOs 2019 on Glassdoor[30]
  • Top CEOs 2018 on Glassdoor[31]
  • Top Businesspersons of the Year #10 on Fortune's global list of (2018)[32]
  • 40 under 40 - Silicon Valley Business Journal (2007)[33]

References

  1. ^ Park, Alice (April 26, 2021). "2021 Time100 Most Influential Companies: Illumina Decoding Covid19". Time.
  2. ^ Fikes, Bradley J. (February 23, 2017). "Illumina CEO brings entrepreneurial spirit to genomics giant". The San Diego Union-Tribune.
  3. ^ Reuters Brief Biography "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  4. ^ Businessweek Executive Profile, "Francis deSouza"[dead link], Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  5. ^ Information Age, "Symantec Buys IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  6. ^ CNet, "Microsoft merger gets message", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  7. ^ The Goan Voice, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  8. ^ The Goan Voice, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  9. ^ Gulf News "Former Dubai-based Indian student at forefront of decoding COVID-19 genome in US"
  10. ^ Fortune, "Francis deSouza" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ^ Fortune, "Francis deSouza" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^ Yaffe-Bellany, David (February 14, 2022). "Divorcing Couples Fight Over the Kids, the House and Now the Crypto". The New York Times. pp. Section B, Page 1. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  13. ^ DeSouza v. DeSouza, A156311  (City & County of San Francisco Super. 54 Cal. App.5th 25, 30 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020), August 10, 2020). Accessed 19 April 2023.
  14. ^ RSA Conference, "Francis deSouza".
  15. ^ CNet, "Microsoft merger gets message", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  16. ^ The Wall Street Transcript, "Francis deSouza – IMlogic Inc".
  17. ^ Engineering Our World: MIT school of Engineering "Today's "real" engineers"
  18. ^ MIT, "Francis deSouza, CEO of IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  19. ^ Information Age, "Symantec Buys IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  20. ^ Reuters Brief Biography, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  21. ^ Businessweek Executive Profile, "Francis deSouza"[dead link], Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  22. ^ Symantec.com, "Symantec FY11 Earnings", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  23. ^ "Illumina Names Francis deSouza as President". MarketWatch. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  24. ^ "Jay Flatley to Assume Role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Illumina; Francis deSouza Appointed President and CEO". www.illumina.com. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  25. ^ "Illumina CEO Francis deSouza resigns following proxy battle with Carl Icahn". www.fiercebiotech.com. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  26. ^ "Why We Invested In Synth Labs, A Company Focusing On Automating LLM Alignment". M12.vc. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  27. ^ "Why We Invested In Synth Labs, A Company Focusing On Automating LLM Alignment". M12.vc. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  28. ^ Citrix.com "Citrix Appoints Francis deSouza to Board of Directors" Archived May 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ a b "Disney adds two board members from tech world". Los Angeles Times.
  30. ^ Glassdoor, [1].
  31. ^ Glassdoor, [2].
  32. ^ Fortune, "2018 Businessperson of the Year" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
  33. ^ Silicon Valley Business Journal, "People to watch"

External links

  • Francis deSouza on Twitter
  • Francis deSouza on Instagram