Francis deSouza
Francis deSouza | |
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deSouza in 2017 | |
Born | Francis Aurelio deSouza December 2, 1970 |
Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B./S.M.) |
Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur and business executive |
Years active | 1991–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 a member of the Board of Directors of Deel Inc. [1]
He was previously the chief executive officer (CEO) of Illumina.[2][3] Before Illumina, deSouza was president of products and services at Symantec.[4][5] He joined Symantec in 2006 when Symantec acquired IMlogic, where deSouza was founder and CEO.[6] Prior to IMlogic, deSouza worked at Microsoft from 1998 to 2001 after Microsoft acquired Flash Communications, where deSouza was co-founder and CEO.[7]
Personal life
[edit]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.[8] 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.[9]
In 1987, at age 16, he graduated from St. Mary's Catholic High School, Dubai, UAE[10] and was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[11] 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.[12]
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.[13][14]
Career
[edit]Early in his career, he worked at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and then in management consulting.[15][non-primary source needed]
Flash Communications
[edit]In 1997 DeSouza co-founded and was CEO of Flash Communications, a provider of corporate instant messaging that was acquired by Microsoft in 1998.[16]
Microsoft
[edit]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.[17]
IMlogic
[edit]DeSouza left Microsoft in 2001 and founded IMlogic, where he was CEO[18] and grew the company into the market leading provider of instant messaging security.[19]
Symantec
[edit]DeSouza joined Symantec through the company's acquisition of IMlogic in February 2006.[20] DeSouza was president of products and services at Symantec until November 11, 2013.[21][22] He led the research, product management, engineering, customer support and operations for Symantec's offerings, which generated $6.73 billion in revenue in FY11.[23]
Illumina
[edit]DeSouza was appointed president of Illumina, Inc. in November 2013, leading the company in envisioning, developing, and producing products.[24] In 2016, he was also appointed CEO.[25] On June 11, 2023, DeSouza announced that he was leaving Illumina. [26]
SynthLabs
[edit]DeSouza co-founded SynthLabs in July 2023, a startup developing technology for an auditable, transparent and robust AI alignment platform.[27] SynthLabs' investors include Microsoft's M12 and First Spark Ventures.[28]
Board member
[edit]deSouza is on the Board of Directors of Deel Inc.[29] He was on the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company[30] from February 2018 to April 2024.[30] and Citrix Systems from December 2014 to June 2016.[31]
Accolades and recognition
[edit]- Top CEOs 2019 on Glassdoor[32]
- Top CEOs 2018 on Glassdoor[33]
- Top Businesspersons of the Year #10 on Fortune's global list of (2018)[34]
- 40 under 40 - Silicon Valley Business Journal (2007)[35]
References
[edit]- ^ Deel.com (May 29, 2024). "Deel Elects Francis deSouza to its Board of Directors".
- ^ Park, Alice (April 26, 2021). "2021 Time100 Most Influential Companies: Illumina Decoding Covid19". Time.
- ^ Fikes, Bradley J. (February 23, 2017). "Illumina CEO brings entrepreneurial spirit to genomics giant". The San Diego Union-Tribune.
- ^ Reuters Brief Biography "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Businessweek Executive Profile, "Francis deSouza"[dead link], Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Information Age, "Symantec Buys IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ CNet, "Microsoft merger gets message", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ The Goan Voice, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ The Goan Voice, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Gulf News "Former Dubai-based Indian student at forefront of decoding COVID-19 genome in US"
- ^ Fortune, "Francis deSouza" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Fortune, "Francis deSouza" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ RSA Conference, "Francis deSouza".
- ^ CNet, "Microsoft merger gets message", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ The Wall Street Transcript, "Francis deSouza – IMlogic Inc".
- ^ Engineering Our World: MIT school of Engineering "Today's "real" engineers"
- ^ MIT, "Francis deSouza, CEO of IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Information Age, "Symantec Buys IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Reuters Brief Biography, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Businessweek Executive Profile, "Francis deSouza"[dead link], Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ Symantec.com, "Symantec FY11 Earnings", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
- ^ "Illumina Names Francis deSouza as President". MarketWatch. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Illumina CEO Francis deSouza resigns following proxy battle with Carl Icahn". www.fiercebiotech.com. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
- ^ "Why We Invested In Synth Labs, A Company Focusing On Automating LLM Alignment". M12.vc. March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ "Why We Invested In Synth Labs, A Company Focusing On Automating LLM Alignment". M12.vc. March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ Deel.com (May 29, 2024). "Deel Elects Francis deSouza to its Board of Directors".
- ^ a b "Disney adds two board members from tech world". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Citrix.com "Citrix Appoints Francis deSouza to Board of Directors" Archived May 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Glassdoor, [1].
- ^ Glassdoor, [2].
- ^ Fortune, "2018 Businessperson of the Year" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Silicon Valley Business Journal, "People to watch"
External links
[edit]- 1970 births
- Living people
- American technology company founders
- American technology chief executives
- Directors of The Walt Disney Company
- American business executives
- American chief executives of manufacturing companies
- American computer businesspeople
- American management consultants
- MIT School of Engineering alumni
- American people of Greek descent
- American people of Indian descent
- American health activists
- American corporate directors
- American information technology businesspeople
- Businesspeople in software
- Gen Digital people
- Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area