At Illumina, our core values stem from innovation, discovery, and collaboration.
As an executive team, we strive to deliver the genomic technologies and trusted solutions that deepen our understanding of genetics and promise to shift the future of health care and beyond.
Steve Barnard, PhD
Chief Technology Officer
Steve Barnard, PhD, is Illumina’s Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for leading Illumina’s research and product development teams in engineering, consumables, applications, user design, software, informatics, artificial intelligence, scientific affairs, and global advanced science. These teams are Illumina’s innovation engine and deliver product excellence in next-generation sequencing platforms and applications to accelerate scientific breakthroughs and translation of genomics to the clinic.
Dr. Barnard joined Illumina in 1998 as the company’s first scientist and fourth employee, holding a variety of leadership positions within Illumina’s R&D organization throughout his distinguished 25-year tenure. Through critical roles in research and technology development, Barnard contributed significantly to maturing Illumina’s foundational science technologies including synthetic chemistry, protein engineering, surface science, assay research and nanofabrication. He holds more than 100 patents globally and has been published in diverse, industry-leading scientific journals, such as Analytical Chemistry, Nature, Science, and Genome Research, to name a few.
Dr. Barnard has played an integral role in advancing Illumina’s industry-leading products, including the launch of the revolutionary NovaSeq X series. His profound understanding of Illumina’s core technologies is accelerating R&D productivity and efficiency, as well as driving shareholder value.
On top of his countless scientific accomplishments, Barnard was instrumental in originating the iHope Program, launched by Illumina in partnership with Rady Children’s Hospital to make clinical whole-genome sequencing accessible to children facing rare and undiagnosed genetic diseases.
Barnard earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Tufts University under the mentorship of Illumina’s scientific founder, Dr. David Walt, and holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Connecticut College.
Charles Dadswell
General Counsel
As General Counsel, Charles (Chuck) Dadswell has worldwide responsibility for all legal and intellectual property matters and is also Illumina's code of ethics compliance officer.
Before joining Illumina, Dadswell was Vice President, General Counsel for North and Latin America and Corporate Director of Global Intellectual Property at bioMerieux. He was previously General Counsel of BioDelivery Sciences International, a specialty pharmaceutical company, and oversaw US intellectual property in a variety of positions with Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome and GlaxoSmithKline.
Dadswell received an LL.M. in patent law and trade regulation from The George Washington University Law School, a J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School and a BS in Pharmacy from Ferris State University.
Aimee Hoyt
Chief People Officer
Aimee Hoyt is Chief People Officer at Illumina, where she is responsible for all aspects of the company’s HR strategies. Hoyt has a successful track record for leading workforce transformation, driving business growth and creating high-impact teams.
Previously, she has held senior positions at some of the world’s best-known technology companies including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Sun Microsystems. Most recently, she was the Chief Human Resources Officer at Rackspace, a leading managed cloud computing company, in San Antonio, Texas. She led the HR team and was responsible for helping build, align and develop high-performing global teams. During her tenure, Rackspace was recognized as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, Top 30 Best Places in Tech and Great Places to Work for Millennials.
Hoyt earned a master’s in human resource development from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Kevin Pegels
Chief of Global Operations
Kevin Pegels is Chief of Global Operations for Illumina where he is responsible for the company’s global operations. His organization includes Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Life Cycle Management, Information Technology and Global Facilities and Real Estate teams who are committed to ensure high product quality and customer satisfaction.
Prior to joining Illumina, Kevin spent over 20 years in senior leadership roles leading supply chain and operations organizations for Bayer Healthcare, The Clorox Company, and Levi Strauss. In addition, his experience includes Deloitte Consulting advising companies on supply chain, operations strategy, and process improvement.
Kevin currently serves on the advisory committee for Bio Supply Management Alliance (BSMA) and will join the board of the San Diego Regional EDC. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University as well as a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Li Qing
Head of Region—Greater China
Li Qing is the Head of Region of Greater China at Illumina. In this role, he is responsible for driving the company's growth strategy and evolution within the region. Qing is dedicated to achieving the long-term vision and financial goals in this strategic market.
Qing is an industry veteran with over 28 years of experience in the healthcare and life science industries at various global organizations.
Prior to joining Illumina, Qing served as the General Manager for Life Sciences at GE Healthcare Greater China, where he led over five business units covering four customer segments. In this role, Qing successfully led the strategic growth of the business. Before that, Qing held a senior leadership role overseas at Baxter.
Qing received his EMBA degree from China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
Susan Tousi
Chief Commercial Officer
Susan Tousi is Chief Commercial Officer at Illumina, where she leads global sales, commercial operations, and commercial strategy and enablement. Susan combines her extensive general management leadership and deep technical knowledge of Illumina’s product portfolio to ensure the global commercial success of the organization. She is committed to empowering Illumina customers with innovations to further unlock the power of the genome.
Susan has been with Illumina since 2012, and previously lead the product development organization as Chief Product Officer. During that time, she was responsible for global engineering, consumables, sequencing applications, IVD, software and informatics development efforts: During this time, she oversaw the most impactful decade of product launches including: HiSeq X, NovaSeq, MiSeq Dx, NextSeq 550Dx/1000/2000, iSeq, VeriSeq NIPT, TSO500,COVIDSeq, DRAGENTM, and Illumina Connected Analytics. Additionally, she led the acquisition of Edico Genomics, BlueBee, and Enancio, combined with Illumina’s existing software solutions, these new capabilities enable scalable, seamless, end-to-end software solutions that drive the utilization of genomic data and accelerate the adoption of genomic data in clinical care.
Susan has more than 25 years of R&D and business leadership at Fortune 100 technology companies and within the life sciences industry. Formerly, she was Corporate Vice President and General Manager for Eastman Kodak’s Consumer Inkjet Systems organization. Prior to joining Kodak, Susan was an R&D program manager for Phogenix Imaging LLC, a joint venture start-up of Hewlett-Packard and Kodak. She previously spent 10 years with Hewlett-Packard in technical and management roles. Along with many academic honors, she has received numerous awards in both business and technology. In 2018, Susan was elected to the National Academy of Engineers. Susan was named one of the 50 Top Diverse Leaders for 2020 by the California Diversity Council and is a member of the International Women’s Forum, a global organization of preeminent women of significant and diverse achievement. In 2022, she was named to Forbes 50 over 50: Entrepreneurs list for her leadership at Illumina and within the biotech community.
Susan holds an MBA degree from UCLA and an Honors BS in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Pennsylvania State University. She currently serves as a scientific advisor on Vizgen’s Scientific Advisory Board, as well as on BICO’s Board of Directors.
Gretchen Weightman
Head of Region—Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa
Gretchen Weightman is the Head of Region for Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa at Illumina. In her role, Weightman is responsible for leading and developing the commercial organization within the region that includes Japan, Oceana, South Korea, South East Asia, Dubai, South Africa and CIS countries.
Weightman has held several leadership positions within Illumina prior to her current role. She was the Director of Sales for Asia Pacific, where she was responsible for sales of the Asia Pacific region, overseeing five geographical districts for orders, shipments and revenue. Prior to this, Weightman was the Senior Marketing Manager for South Asia Pacific, responsible for the overall marketing strategy and implementation in South East Asia, India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
Prior to joining Illumina, Weightman worked at Applied Biosystems in a variety of commercial positions including Sales, Marketing, and Product Management. Her professional career started at Genesis Research & Development where she set up the high-throughput sequencing facility.
Weightman graduated from Auckland University with a BSc in Molecular Genetics and a Diploma of Commerce.
Joydeep Goswami, PhD
Chief Financial Officer, Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer
Joydeep Goswami was appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2023 and is responsible for Illumina’s financial planning and analysis, accounting, investor relations, internal audit, tax, and treasury functions. He also leads the company’s Corporate Development and Strategic Planning function.
Mr. Goswami initially joined the company in 2019 as Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer, in which he was responsible for driving planning, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions, and worked closely with the Finance organization on strategic initiatives involving capital allocation, financial planning, and deal execution. In July 2022, Mr. Goswami took on the added interim responsibility of leading Illumina’s Finance team, bringing a unique combination of strategic thinking, deep operational and P&L expertise, and extensive global business experience to position Illumina for long-term success.
Prior to joining Illumina, Mr. Goswami served as the President of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Clinical Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Oncology business unit, where he oversaw efforts that drove the adoption of NGS in clinical oncology, research and reproductive health. Mr. Goswami has held senior leadership roles across the pharma/biotech, diagnostics and research tool continuum, previously serving at companies such as Life Technologies and Invitrogen, in addition to Thermo Fisher Scientific. He has led teams across various functions, including sales, marketing, R&D and other support functions. Mr. Goswami served as President, Asia Pacific and Japan, while at Thermo Fisher Scientific and created the Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Business Unit at Invitrogen. Additionally, he spent five years at McKinsey, where he specialized in strategy for pharmaceutical, medical technology and technology companies.
Mr. Goswami holds his MS, PhD in Chemical Engineering, an MBA from MIT and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Nicole Berry
Head of Region—Americas
Nicole Berry is the Head of Region for the Americas, inclusive of the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. In this role, she is responsible for leading the customer facing functions including Direct and Channel Partner Sales, Service and Support, and Regional Commercial Operations teams in the Americas region.
Berry has been with Illumina since 2009 and has held several commercial leadership positions within the company. During the three years prior to her current role, she served as the Vice President of Sales for the Americas. Prior to this, Berry served in a number of sales management roles covering the U.S. and Canada.
PPrior to joining Illumina, Berry worked at Applied Biosystems on the U.S. sales management team. Other highlights of her professional career include 15 years at Eastman Kodak Company, where she held a variety of global marketing and business management roles. Her professional career started at the Sloan Kettering Institute in the Tumor Immunogenetics laboratory of Dr. Lloyd Old.
Berry graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Biology, with a concentration in Neuroscience.
Kathryne Reeves
Chief Marketing Officer
Kathryne Reeves is Chief Marketing Officer at Illumina, where she is responsible for the development and implementation of a global marketing strategy that strives to expand patient and physician awareness of the benefits of genomic testing, amplify the voice of our customers, and accelerate clinical adoption of genomics.
Reeves brings more than 25 years of cross-industry marketing and corporate strategy experience to Illumina. Most recently, she was Senior Vice President of Enterprise Marketing and General Manager of the Medical Services Global Business Unit at Cardinal Health, where she led a rapidly growing portfolio of business with annual revenues in excess of $1 billion USD. Prior to Cardinal Health, Reeves held positions at Booz Allen Hamilton, AOL/Time Warner, Nationwide Insurance, and Scotts Miracle-Gro, among others.
Reeves is a member of the International Women’s Forum where she was a Leadership Fellow in 2017, and was named one of the Top Influential Women in Corporate America by the Savoy Network in 2016 and Most Influential Black Executives in 2022. She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Carissa Rollins
Chief Information Officer
Carissa Rollins is Chief Information Officer at Illumina, where she is responsible for leading all Global Information Systems strategy, operations, risk and compliance, infrastructure, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, employee and business-facing applications.
Before joining Illumina, Rollins was CIO at UnitedHealthcare. There she was responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and technology investments in support of the commercial, Medicare and retirement, and government programs technology business portfolios at UnitedHealthcare. Prior to UnitedHealthcare, Rollins held the positions of executive and senior roles at Gander Mountain at Kohl’s Corporation, Manpower Global, and Miller-Coors.
Rollins has served on the Board of Directors for the YWCA, Minneapolis, and is currently the Board Chair. She also serves on the Grand Canyon Conservancy board and the T-Mobile advisory board.
Rollins holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems and an MBA from Marquette University.
Salli Schwartz
Vice President of Investor Relations
Salli Schwartz is the Vice President of Investor Relations, leading all investor strategies and activities including quarterly earnings releases and conference calls, investor presentations, and day-to-day interactions.
Schwartz brings deep expertise, joining Illumina from MSCI Inc., where she served as Head of Investor Relations and Treasurer. In her role at MSCI, she oversaw relationships with equity and debt investors, sell-side analysts, rating agencies and partner banks, and executed company financing, cash management and capital allocation activities. Schwartz also served as a member of MSCI’s Corporate Responsibility Committee, Enterprise Risk Oversight Committee and Investment Committee.
Prior to MSCI, Schwartz spent more than 12 years with Moody’s Corporation, most recently as Global Head of Strategic Capital Management and Treasurer. She previously served as Treasurer and as Global Head of Investor Relations and Communications, as well as on Moody’s Corporate Development team.
Schwartz also held positions in corporate strategy, corporate treasury and FP&A with Citigroup Inc., and investment banking and merchant banking positions with Legg Mason. She previously served as a Board Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of the National Academy Foundation (NAF), a non-profit national network of education, business and community leaders who work together to ensure high school students are college, career and future ready.
Schwartz hold an MBA from Cornell University and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, both with distinction.
Bas Verhoef
Head of Region—Europe
Bas Verhoef is Illumina’s Head of Region for Europe, where he is responsible for leading the transformation of the business, building on strong growth, and driving the genomics agenda across the region.
Verhoef, a Dutch national based in The Netherlands, joined Illumina in January 2023 from Royal Philips, where he gained 25+ years of broad and diverse general management experience in leadership roles across multiple healthcare sectors and geographies.
Verhoef holds two Masters degrees (in Nuclear Physics and Business Marketing) from the Eindhoven University of Technology and a PhD from the University of Maastricht in Cardiac Electrophysiology.
Jacob Thaysen, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Jacob Thaysen, PhD is Illumina’s Chief Executive Officer. He joined the company in September 2023.
Prior to Illumina, Jacob was senior vice president of Agilent and president of Agilent's Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group (LSAG) which consists of Agilent's market leading analytical instrument portfolio, informatics and cell analysis franchise. From 2014 to 2018, Thaysen served as the president of Agilent's Diagnostics and Genomics Group (DGG).
Prior to joining Agilent, Thaysen was corporate vice president of R&D at Dako, a Danish cancer diagnostic company. Before joining Dako, he served as management consultant at Copenhagen Consultancy Company (now Bain & Co). Early in his career, he was founder and chief technology officer of Cantion, a research and defense application development company based in Denmark.
Thaysen holds an MSc and PhD in physics from the Technical University of Denmark.