SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2008--Illumina, Inc.(NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced the appointment of Joel McComb as SeniorVice President and General Manager of the Company's Life SciencesBusiness Unit and Gregory F. Heath, Ph.D., as Senior Vice Presidentand General Manager of the Company's Diagnostics Business Unit.
Joel McComb joins Illumina from GE Healthcare where he held anumber of executive positions including his most recent position asPresident of the Interventional Medicine Business. Prior to this role,Joel was President of Life Sciences Discovery Systems, a $600 milliondivision of GE Healthcare. This business unit was formed after GEacquired Amersham Biosciences, and markets molecular biology,genomics, proteomic, and cellular imaging products. In this role Joelhad responsibility for product development, manufacturing, service,global sales and marketing, information systems, quality, businessdevelopment, and program management. Prior to his work at GEHealthcare, Joel was President and Chief Executive Officer ofInnovadyne Technologies. He was responsible for the strategy andimplementation of all operations, beginning with the startup ofInnovadyne through its subsequent sale as a profitable business toGilson, Inc. From 1995 to 2001 Joel held various positions at BeckmanCoulter, including roles as General Manager of the Primary CareDiagnostic Division and Director of Corporate Business Development.Joel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in genetics from theUniversity of California, Davis and a MBA degree from the Golden GateUniversity in San Francisco, CA.
In his new position as Illumina's General Manager of LifeSciences, Joel is responsible for managing all products and servicesrelated to the research market, namely the BeadArray(TM),BeadXpress(R), and Sequencing product lines.
Gregory F. Heath brings with him more than 20 years of Diagnosticsexperience, including launching the world's first FDA-approvedmicroarray for diagnostic use. He joins Illumina from Roche MolecularSystems where he held a number of senior executive positions,including Head of Clinical Genomics, Senior Vice President of GlobalProduct Marketing, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing andBusiness Development, and most recently, Senior Vice President ofGlobal Business. In this last role, Greg was responsible for newproduct development and global marketing activities for the InfectiousDisease, Blood Screening, Genetics, and Oncology portfolios. From 2000to 2003, Greg was Head of Business Development and Licensing for theDiagnostics Division of F. Hoffman La Roche in Basel and led theStrategic Planning, Business Development and Licensingactivities of the Molecular Diagnostics, Centralized Diagnostics,Applied Science, Near Patient Testing, and Diabetes Care businessareas. Prior to this, Greg held numerous roles in Marketing andBusiness Development with Roche Diagnostic's U.S. affiliate. Gregearned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Illinois StateUniversity and a Master of Arts degree in experimental psychology fromHollins College (Roanoke, VA). He graduated with a Ph.D. inExperimental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University andcompleted his post-doctoral work in behavioral pharmacology atMichigan State University.
In his new position as General Manager of Diagnostics, Greg isresponsible for managing Illumina's emerging diagnostics business,specifically overseeing the development of diagnostic content for theBeadXpress system, and ultimately for Illumina's Sequencing products.
"With our newly-created Life Sciences and Diagnostics BusinessUnits we are ideally positioned to take advantage of our rapidlygrowing market opportunities," said Jay Flatley, President and ChiefExecutive Officer of Illumina. "Joel will focus on the integration ofour sequencing, genotyping, and gene expression businesses. Greg'ssubstantial experience in the diagnostics industry will help usfurther develop our diagnostic strategy and operations to leverage thekey assets of the company."
About Mr. McComb's and Dr. Heath's Compensation
The Company granted options to purchase 200,000 and 150,000 sharesof Illumina's common stock to Mr. McComb and Dr. Heath, respectively,as part of their inducement to join the company. The options weregranted by the Company's compensation committee pursuant to NASDAQMarketplace Rule 4350(i)(1)(A)(iv) and under Illumina's New Hire Stockand Incentive Plan, which was approved by Illumina's Board ofDirectors on January 29, 2008. These options have the following terms:an exercise price equal to the closing fair market value of Illumina'scommon stock on the grant date, a ten-year term and vesting over fiveyears with 20 percent of each option vesting one year from the grantdate and 1/60th of each option vesting monthly thereafter. The grantdate for these options is March 17, 2008.
About Illumina
Illumina (www.illumina.com) is a leading developer, manufacturer,and marketer of next-generation life-science tools and integratedsystems for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation andbiological function. Using our proprietary technologies, we provide acomprehensive line of products and services that currently serve thesequencing, genotyping, and gene expression markets, and we expect toenter the market for molecular diagnostics. Our customers includeleading genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academicinstitutions, clinical research organizations, and biotechnologycompanies. Our tools provide researchers around the world with theperformance, throughput, cost effectiveness, and flexibility necessaryto perform the billions of genetic tests needed to extract valuablemedical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. Webelieve this information will enable researchers to correlate geneticvariation and biological function, which will enhance drug discoveryand clinical research, allow diseases to be detected earlier, andpermit better choices of drugs for individual patients.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities LitigationReform Act of 1995: this release may contain forward-lookingstatements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the importantfactors that could cause actual results to differ materially fromthose in any forward-looking statements are Illumina's ability (i) tointegrate effectively our recent acquisition of Solexa, Inc., (ii) todevelop and commercialize further our BeadArray(TM), VeraCode(R), andSolexa(R) technologies and to deploy new sequencing, gene expression,and genotyping products and applications for our technology platforms,(iii) to manufacture robust microarrays and Oligator(R)oligonucleotides, (iv) to integrate and scale our VeraCode technology,together with other factors detailed in our filings with theSecurities and Exchange Commission including our recent filings onForms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conferencecalls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We disclaimany intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statementsbeyond the date of this release.
CONTACT: Illumina, Inc.
Maurissa Bornstein, 858-332-4055 (Media)
Public Relations Manager
mbornstein@illumina.com
Peter J. Fromen, 858-202-4507 (Investors)
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
pfromen@illumina.com
SOURCE: Illumina, Inc.