Chair Thompson to depart Illumina in partial victory for Icahn
Activist investor gains one seat on sequencing company's board. Plus: CEO Clark steps down at Destiny and updates from Arcutis, Cartography and more
John Thompson will depart as chairman of Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) after failing to win re-election at the company’s annual meeting amid a proxy battle with activist investor Carl Icahn. One of Icahn’s three nominees was elected to the board, Icahn Capital portfolio manager Andrew Teno. Illumina CEO Francis deSouza was among eight of the nine Illumina director nominees re-elected, according to the preliminary results. Icahn has criticized Illumina’s acquisition of Grail Inc.
U.K. based infectious disease company Destiny Pharma plc (LSE:DEST) named non-executive director Debra Barker as interim CEO after Neil Clark decided to step down to pursue other opportunties. Barker previously worked for Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS) and Polyphor AG, among other companies. ...