Illumina: Alex Aravanis, Phil Febbo, Steven Barnard
Alex Aravanis has resigned as chief technology officer of Illumina, and Phil Febbo has resigned from the role of chief medical officer. Steven Barnard, Illumina's VP and head of global advanced science, has taken over the role of CTO. He joined Illumina in 1998 as its first scientist and fourth employee and has held a variety of leadership positions within the company's R&D organization. He holds a PhD in chemistry from Tufts University and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Connecticut College.
Karius: Norman Sharpless, Elizabeth O'Farrell
Karius, a Redwood City, California-based company developing liquid biopsy tests for infectious disease diagnosis, has appointed Norman (Ned) Sharpless and Elizabeth (Liz) O'Farrell to its board of directors.
Sharpless served as director of the National Cancer Institute from 2017 to 2022. In 2019, he also served as acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration for seven months. He was also the director of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center from 2014 to 2017. Sharpless began his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and cofounded G1 Therapeutics and Jupiter BioVentures. He is a graduate of the UNC School of Medicine where he is now professor of cancer policy and innovation.
O'Farrell worked at Eli Lilly for 24 years, holding several executive management positions including general auditor, CFO of Lilly USA, and SVP of policy and finance. Her role before retiring in 2017 was as chief procurement officer and head of global shared services. She holds an MBA in management information systems and a BA in accounting from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Ginkgo Bioworks: Shyam Sankar, Marijn Dekkers
Shyam Sankar has been appointed as chair of the board of directors of Ginkgo Bioworks. He is succeeding Marijn Dekkers, who has been chairman since 2019 and who will remain a company director. Sankar is the chief technology officer of Palantir Technologies and has been a member of Ginkgo's board since 2015.
Quanterix: Vandana Sriram
Quanterix has appointed Vandana Sriram as CFO, effective Aug. 21, 2023. Sriram will replace Michael Doyle who will transition to the role of executive director, finance, until his retirement in March 2024.
Sriram was previously senior VP of global finance at Azenta Life Sciences. Prior to that she was senior executive and head of FP&A for GE Aviation.
For additional recent items on executive appointments, promotions, and departures in the omics and molecular diagnostics space, please see the People in the News page on our website.