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(s) | none, formerly Illumina
|
| Spouse |
Erica deSouza
(m. 2001; div. 2017) |
| Children | 2 |
Francis Aurelio deSouza (/ˈdʌsuːzɑː/; born December 2, 1970) is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the former 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]
Following the 2017 divorce of deSouza and his wife Erica, the division of their cryptocurrency assets became a subject of dispute, drawing attention to how cryptocurrency assets are treated in 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. On June 11, 2023, DeSouza announced his resignation effectively immediately to Endpoints news https://endpts.com/exclusive-illumina-ceo-desouza-resigns-following-challenge-by-activist-investor/ [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]
