Francis deSouza

This article is about American businessman. For Canadian journalist, see Francis D'Souza. For Indian politician, see Francis D'Souza (politician). For the British scientist and politician, see Frances D'Souza, Baroness D'Souza.

Francis deSouza
deSouza in 2017
Born
Francis Aurelio deSouza

(1970-12-02) December 2, 1970 (age 53)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B./S.M.)
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur and business executive
Years active1991–present
Employer(s)SynthLabs, formerly Illumina, Symantec, IMLogic, Microsoft, Flash

Francis Aurelio deSouza (/ˈdʌsuːzɑː/; born December 2, 1970) is an American entrepreneur and business executive. He is co-founder of SynthLabs, and a member of the Board of Directors of Deel Inc. [1]

He was previously the chief executive officer (CEO) of Illumina.[2][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]

Personal life

He was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to a mother of Ethiopian and Greek descent, Elpinki, and an Indian father, Domingos. 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]

Desouza was divorced in 2017 and has 2 children. Desouza invested in bitcoin in 2013 and the division of their cryptocurrency assets in the divorce became a subject of dispute, drawing attention to how cryptocurrency assets are treated in divorce.[13][14]

Career

Early in his career, he worked at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and then in management consulting.[15][non-primary source needed]

Flash Communications

In 1997 DeSouza co-founded and was CEO of Flash Communications, a provider of corporate instant messaging that was acquired by Microsoft in 1998.[16]

Microsoft

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]

IMlogic

DeSouza left Microsoft in 2001 and founded IMlogic, where he was CEO[18] and grew the company into the market leading provider of instant messaging security.[19]

Symantec

DeSouza joined Symantec through the company's acquisition of IMlogic in February 2006.[20] DeSouza was 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]

Illumina

DeSouza was appointed president of Illumina, Inc. in November 2013, leading the company in envisioning, developing, and producing products.[24] In 2016, he was also appointed CEO.[25] On June 11, 2023, DeSouza announced that he was leaving Illumina. [26]

SynthLabs

DeSouza co-founded SynthLabs in July 2023, a startup developing technology for an auditable, transparent and robust AI alignment platform.[27] SynthLabs' investors include Microsoft's M12 and First Spark Ventures.[28]

Board member

deSouza is on the Board of Directors of Deel Inc.[29] He was on the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company[30] from February 2018 to April 2024.[30] and Citrix Systems from December 2014 to June 2016.[31]

Accolades and recognition

References

  1. ^ Deel.com (May 29, 2024). "Deel Elects Francis deSouza to its Board of Directors".
  2. ^ Park, Alice (April 26, 2021). "2021 Time100 Most Influential Companies: Illumina Decoding Covid19". Time.
  3. ^ Fikes, Bradley J. (February 23, 2017). "Illumina CEO brings entrepreneurial spirit to genomics giant". The San Diego Union-Tribune.
  4. ^ Reuters Brief Biography "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  5. ^ Businessweek Executive Profile, "Francis deSouza"[dead link‍], Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  6. ^ Information Age, "Symantec Buys IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  7. ^ CNet, "Microsoft merger gets message", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  8. ^ The Goan Voice, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  9. ^ The Goan Voice, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  10. ^ Gulf News "Former Dubai-based Indian student at forefront of decoding COVID-19 genome in US"
  11. ^ Fortune, "Francis deSouza" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^ Fortune, "Francis deSouza" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ Yaffe-Bellany, David (February 14, 2022). "Divorcing Couples Fight Over the Kids, the House and Now the Crypto". The New York Times. pp. Section B, Page 1. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  14. ^ DeSouza v. DeSouza, A156311  (City & County of San Francisco Super. 54 Cal. App.5th 25, 30 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020), August 10, 2020). Accessed 19 April 2023.
  15. ^ RSA Conference, "Francis deSouza".
  16. ^ CNet, "Microsoft merger gets message", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  17. ^ The Wall Street Transcript, "Francis deSouza – IMlogic Inc".
  18. ^ Engineering Our World: MIT school of Engineering "Today's "real" engineers"
  19. ^ MIT, "Francis deSouza, CEO of IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  20. ^ Information Age, "Symantec Buys IMlogic", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  21. ^ Reuters Brief Biography, "Francis deSouza", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  22. ^ Businessweek Executive Profile, "Francis deSouza"[dead link‍], Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  23. ^ Symantec.com, "Symantec FY11 Earnings", Accessed on April 19, 2012.
  24. ^ "Illumina Names Francis deSouza as President". MarketWatch. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  25. ^ "Jay Flatley to Assume Role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Illumina; Francis deSouza Appointed President and CEO". www.illumina.com. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  26. ^ "Illumina CEO Francis deSouza resigns following proxy battle with Carl Icahn". www.fiercebiotech.com. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  27. ^ "Why We Invested In Synth Labs, A Company Focusing On Automating LLM Alignment". M12.vc. March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  28. ^ "Why We Invested In Synth Labs, A Company Focusing On Automating LLM Alignment". M12.vc. March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  29. ^ Deel.com (May 29, 2024). "Deel Elects Francis deSouza to its Board of Directors".
  30. ^ a b "Disney adds two board members from tech world". Los Angeles Times.
  31. ^ Citrix.com "Citrix Appoints Francis deSouza to Board of Directors" Archived May 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  32. ^ Glassdoor, [1].
  33. ^ Glassdoor, [2].
  34. ^ Fortune, "2018 Businessperson of the Year" Archived November 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine.
  35. ^ Silicon Valley Business Journal, "People to watch"