Illumina Management Team

Jacob Thaysen, PhD is Chief Executive Officer of Illumina. Prior to joining the company in 2023, Thaysen served as president of the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group and Diagnostic and Genomics Group at Agilent; corporate vice president of R&D at Dako; and 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 is Chairman of the ALDA Board (Analytical, Life Science and Diagnostic Association) and is a San Diego Chapter member of the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer.

Thaysen holds an MSc and PhD in physics from the Technical University of Denmark.

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.

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.

Prior 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.

Todd Christian is Head of Services, Arrays, and Genomics Access (SAGA) at Illumina, where he is responsible for the go-to-market strategy and commercialization of arrays, pharma and clinical diagnostics partnerships, Population Genomics, Services and Support, and Illumina Lab Services.

Before joining Illumina, Christian was vice president and general manager of the cell analysis division at Agilent Technologies, Inc. During his time there, he was an integral part of the company’s multi-year growth strategy to expand its position in cell analysis and other high-growth segments of the life sciences, biopharma and diagnostics markets to serve new and existing customers.

Christian is a distinguished leader in the life sciences market, with more than 25 years of experience in the industry. Before joining Agilent, he spent a number of years at both large and small organizations in the life sciences space, including Becton Dickinson, Applied Bioscience, and Guava Technologies.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College and a variety of executive certificate programs in marketing, program management, and operations. He has recently served on a variety of non-profit boards focused on funding youth education and underserved communities, and actively volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.

Everett Cunningham is Illumina’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), responsible for building, guiding, and managing the company’s global commercial organization and commercial strategy. 

Cunningham joined the company in June 2024 and has more than 20 years of extensive commercial experience across healthcare tech, life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Exact Sciences, where he oversaw the company’s marketing, sales and customer service functions. Prior to Exact Sciences, he held various senior leadership roles at Quest Diagnostics, GE Healthcare, and Pfizer where he spent 21 years in various senior leadership roles.  

Cunningham has a degree in economics from Northwestern University. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Visby Medical and Arvinas.

As interim General Counsel and Secretary, Scott Davies has worldwide responsibility for all legal and intellectual property matters and regulatory and government affairs. He also serves as Illumina's code of ethics compliance officer.

Prior to his appointment as interim General Counsel and Secretary, Davies served as Illumina’s Vice President, Legal – Chief Corporate Counsel and Assistant Secretary. Davies joined Illumina in 2009 as its first corporate-focused attorney and has managed all of Illumina’s significant corporate legal matters and transactions since that time. While taking on positions of increasing responsibility, Davies developed and led a global corporate and commercial legal team and has worked closely with Illumina’s senior executive team and board of directors on a wide range of legal matters across the spectrum of Illumina’s global business operations.

Prior to joining Illumina, Davies was a corporate transactions (M&A), securities, and finance attorney for 12 years, including 10 years with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a leading international law firm, and two years with Allen & Overy, a leading UK-based global law firm, resident in its London office.

Davies received a J.D. from Cornell Law School and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.

As Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ankur Dhingra is responsible for Illumina’s accounting, financial planning and analysis, internal audit, investor relations, tax, and treasury functions.

Prior to joining Illumina, Dhingra served as CFO at Summit Therapeutics – a California-based biopharmaceutical oncology company. He was previously CFO at CareDx, Inc, a molecular diagnostics company focused on the transplant patient journey. Dhingra spent 18 years at Agilent Technologies in a variety of financial and operational leadership roles, including Vice President of Investor Relations and Group CFO for the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group (LSAG), which consists of Agilent's market leading analytical instrument portfolio, informatics, and cell analysis franchise.

Mr. Dhingra is a Chartered Accountant from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Pat Leckman is Chief People Officer at Illumina, where she is responsible for all aspects of the company’s HR strategies. Leckman has a successful track record for leading workforce transformation, driving business growth, and creating high-impact teams.

Previously, she worked in dynamic organizations such as Watson Wyatt, NVIDIA, Cisco, and Perot Systems. In her tenure as part of the Illumina Human Resources leadership team, she transformed the Compensation, Benefits, and People Technology functions. She has led international teams that design, contract, and implement agreements and joint ventures. Throughout her career, she has helped clients with business process redesign, vendor assessment, outsourcing, and transition management.

Leckman serves on the board of San Diego Squared, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering underrepresented students in STEM. She earned a master’s in business administration from London Business School and a bachelor’s in communication from Stanford University.

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.

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 Owens & Minor Board.

Rollins holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems and an MBA from Marquette University.

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 holds an MBA from Cornell University and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, both with distinction.

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.

Jakob Wedel is Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer at Illumina, leading corporate strategy, partnerships, alliances, and acquisitions. With more than 25 years in top-tier strategy consulting focused on the life science and technology sector, Mr. Wedel brings a wealth of expertise in driving growth and innovation to the company.

Prior to joining Illumina, Wedel was a Senior Partner at Ernst and Young's strategy practice, EY Parthenon, where he played a key role in the global expansion of its life science strategy practice. His leadership in the global life science practice provided him with deep insights into the dynamics of the life science tools, clinical diagnostics and biopharma sectors, and positioned him as a trusted advisor for global industry executives.

Wedel spent more than 20 years at renowned consulting firms McKinsey and Bain & Co. serving life science, diagnostics and pharmaceutical clients in the US and Europe. He co-founded the Nordic strategy firm Qvartz, which grew to 450 professionals before being acquired by Bain.

Wedel attended Aarhus University in Denmark and earned a Master of Science in International Marketing & Management from Copenhagen Business School.

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.

Jenny Zheng is Head of Region at Illumina Greater China, where she is responsible for driving company’s strategy and evolution in Greater China, fostering continued breakthroughs in this pivotal market and contributing to the company’s long-term mission of improving human health.

Ms. Zheng has more than 25 years of international experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Prior to joining Illumina, she served as Chairman and President of Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. In her multiple leadership tenure, she has led teams across countries and regional markets to achieve double-digit growth, managed multiple strategic projects’ successful operation and cultivated a high-performing, inclusive and purpose-driven management team.

Ms. Zheng has been named to Forbes China Top 100 Businesswomen of 2022, and Fortune China's Most Powerful Women of 2022. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.