NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Affymetrix founder, chairman, and CEO Stephen Fodor will relinquish his CEO responsibilities as of Jan. 1, 2009, the company said today.
Fodor will serve as full-time executive chairman, a position in which he will “identify and advance new platform technologies and explore new market opportunities for the company,” Affymetrix said in a statement.
Kevin King, president of Affymetrix, will become CEO and a member of the board of directors on Jan. 1.
Fodor founded Affymetrix in 1993 and served in various roles, including president, COO, and CTO, until he was appointed CEO in 1997. Fodor has served as chairman of the company’s board since 1999.
Fodor said in a statement that Affymetrix has “an exciting portfolio of next-generation technologies,” and noted that his time is “best spent identifying new technologies for the company and accelerating their development for applications in scientific research and the health care enterprise.”
Paul Berg, Nobel Laureate and a member of Affy’s board of directors, said that Fodor “has planned for an orderly management transition that began by hiring Kevin King in January 2007."