Jacob Thaysen, Ph.D.

Jacob Thaysen, Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer of Illumina, a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies. Prior to joining Illumina 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 M.Sc. and Ph.D. in physics from the Technical University of Denmark.