Francis deSouza | |
|---|---|
deSouza at Illumina Cambridge, 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 | Illumina |
| Title | President & CEO |
| Board member of |
|
| Spouse |
Erica deSouza
(m. 2001; div. 2021) |
| Children | 2 |
Francis Aurelio deSouza (/ˈdʌsuːzɑː/; born December 2, 1970) is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Illumina[1][2] and a member of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company.[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]
He was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Elpinki, an Ethiopian/Greek mother, and Domingos, an Indian father. 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]
During the divorce proceedings of Mr. deSouza and his wife Erica, the division of their crypto assets became a subject of dispute, drawing attention to how Cryptocurrency assets are treated in cases of divorce.[13][14]
Early in his career, he worked at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and then in management consulting.[15][non-primary source needed] DeSouza co-founded and served as CEO of Flash Communications, a provider of corporate instant messaging that was acquired by Microsoft in 1998.[16]
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]
DeSouza left Microsoft in 2001 and founded IMlogic, where he served as CEO[18] and grew the company into the market leading provider of instant messaging security.[19]
DeSouza joined Symantec through the company's acquisition of IMlogic in February 2006.[20] DeSouza served as 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]
DeSouza became president and chief executive officer of Illumina on July 5, 2016, and has served on Illumina's board of directors since November 2013.[24][25] Prior to becoming president and CEO in July 2016,[26] he served as President of Illumina from November 2013[27] to July 2016. He was responsible for Illumina's business units and for developing, marketing, selling and supporting the company's products. DeSouza joined Illumina in November 2013.[28]
He served on the Board of Directors of Citrix Systems from December 2014 to June 2016.[29]
In February 2018 deSouza was elected to the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company.[3]
