Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced the appointment of Dr.
Mostafa Ronaghi as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
As reported during Illumina’s July 22, 2008
second quarter earnings release, Dr. Ronaghi joined Illumina following
the Company’s recent acquisition of Avantome,
Inc., which closed on August 1, 2008. Among his other duties, Dr.
Ronaghi will be responsible for leading the technology development
effort at Illumina including the Avantome technology, which is a
low-cost, long-read-length sequencing technique that complements Illumina’s
current sequencing technologies.
Dr. Ronaghi is an experienced entrepreneur with Avantome being his
fourth life sciences start-up company. In 1997, he co-founded
Pyrosequencing AB, which was later renamed to Biotage AB in 2003, and
led the company to a successful initial public offering in June 2000 on
the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In 2001, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded ParAllele
Bioscience. ParAllele, which was eventually acquired by Affymetrix,
Inc., was involved in the development and commercialization of highly
multiplexed technology for genetic testing and was later acquired by
Affymetrix. In 2005, Dr. Ronaghi co-founded NextBio, a search engine for
life science data.
Dr. Ronaghi earned his Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology in
Sweden and, until recently, he was associated with Stanford University
as a principal investigator focusing on developing novel tools for
molecular diagnostic applications. He holds more than 20 pending and
issued patents and has written more than 50 peer-reviewed publications
in journals and books. Dr. Ronaghi also serves on the Board of Directors
of Microchip Biotechnologies, NextBio, and Aurora Biofuels.
“Mostafa’s
entrepreneurial background makes him an ideal addition to Illumina’s
culture,” said Jay Flatley, Illumina’s
President and Chief Executive Officer. “His
extensive technical expertise and wealth of experience developing
technologies for genetic analysis will be a tremendous asset to the
Company going forward.”
About Dr. Ronaghi’s Compensation
The Company granted an option to purchase 115,000 shares of Illumina's
common stock to Dr. Ronaghi as part of his inducement to join the
Company. The option was granted by the Company's Compensation Committee
under Illumina's New Hire Stock and Incentive Plan, which was approved
by Illumina's Board of Directors on January 29, 2008.
