Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling
customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA
using its silicon platform, today announced it appointed Nelson C. Chan,
former CEO of Magellan, as a Class I director to its board of directors.
Mr. Chan brings more than 35 years of experience as both a director and
operational executive in the technology and life sciences space.
“Nelson’s deep expertise in introducing a new type of data storage, his
ability to build businesses with exponential growth and his knowledge of
both the semiconductor and life sciences industries internationally make
him an excellent fit to guide our next steps in both DNA data storage
and genomics,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of
Twist Bioscience.
Mr. Chan has been an advisor to Twist for the last 18 months, providing
guidance on its DNA data storage vertical. Mr. Chan brings a wealth of
relevant expertise to the board, having previously served in various
senior management positions with SanDisk Corporation, the world’s
largest supplier of flash-branded data storage products, including vice
president of global marketing, senior vice president of global sales and
marketing and most recently as executive vice president and general
manager, consumer business. At SanDisk, Mr. Chan helped drive the
business from startup to over $3 billion in annual revenues. He led
SanDisk’s entry into the retail business and was instrumental in
creating and driving its retail presence through a branded product
portfolio. Mr. Chan also served as chief executive officer of Magellan,
a leader in consumer, survey, GIS and OEM GPS navigation and positioning
markets. In addition to his tenure at SanDisk and Magellan, Mr. Chan
held marketing and engineering positions at Chips and Technologies,
Signetics, and Delco Electronics. He holds a B.S. in electrical and
computer engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara
and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. He serves as chairman of the
board of Synaptics and Adesto, and is executive chairman of HZO. He is
also a member of the board of directors of Decker Brands, Federated
Wireless and Nanosys, and previously served on the board of Affymetrix
prior to its acquisition by Thermo Fisher and as chairman of the board
of Outerwall until it was purchased by Apollo Management.
“I look forward to sharing my expertise as Twist moves toward the
commercialization of a new data storage media in DNA,” commented Mr.
Chan. “I believe DNA could be as groundbreaking, if not more so, than
flash memory in this field, and Twist, with its high throughput DNA
writing platform, is positioned to lead the industry.”
Mr. Chan replaces Paul Conley, Ph.D., managing director of Paladin
Capital Group, who has served on Twist’s board of directors since 2013.
“I am so proud of what this company has built, so grateful for the
opportunity to have been one of the earlier believers and financial
backers of the team’s vision and so looking forward to watching my very
capable colleagues on this board continue to enable and support that
vision,” said Dr. Conley.
About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology
company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to
industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a
proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing
synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging
its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic
DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation
sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery
and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in
digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes
products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial
chemicals, agriculture and academic research.
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Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements
other than statements of historical facts contained herein are
forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and
expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but
not limited to, the potential promise of Twist Bioscience’s DNA storage
vertical, and the potential for Mr. Chan’s past successes to guide Twist
Bioscience’s growth in the DNA storage markets. Such forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other
important factors that may cause Twist Bioscience’s actual results,
performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future
results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among
others, the risks and uncertainties of the ability to attract new
customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; risks and
uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition
in synthetic biology could make the products Twist Bioscience is
developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention
of a significant customer; risks of third party claims alleging
infringement of patents and proprietary rights or seeking to invalidate
Twist Bioscience’s patents or proprietary rights; and the risk that
Twist Bioscience’s proprietary rights may be insufficient to protect its
technologies. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these
forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to Twist
Bioscience’s business in general, see Twist Bioscience’s risk factors
set forth in Twist Bioscience’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 20, 2018 and Twist
Bioscience’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 1, 2019. Any
forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as
of the date hereof, and Twist Bioscience specifically disclaims any
obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result
of new information, future events or otherwise.
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