Portfolio Press Release
Long-Time ABI Executive Joins Fluidigm Corporation As Executive Vice President Of R&D
Bob Jones rounds out Company's management team
South San Francisco, CA - August 24, 2005 — Fluidigm has named Robert C. Jones Executive Vice President of R&D. Mr. Jones brings 20 years of experience in R&D and business management gained at the pioneering life-science technology company Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), the past 10 years in executive-level positions. Most recently, as Senior Vice President of Product Research and Development, he directed product development for all genomics, proteomics and informatics platforms.
"Bob's domain knowledge is highly relevant to Fluidigm's plans, and his track record of leading high-performing R&D teams across multiple product lines is second to none," said Fluidigm's CEO Gajus Worthington. "We believe he is a great complement to our seasoned management team as we expand applications for our integrated fluidic circuits."
"I've been watching Fluidigm's technology these past few years, and now I'm excited to be a part of ensuring it reaches its incredible potential in the life sciences," stated Jones.
Commercializing highly innovative products is Jones' forte. As ABI's Vice President of the PCR Business Unit in the 1990s, he was instrumental to developing a fledgling real-time PCR product line into a multi 100 million dollar business. He also contributed previously to development of the ABI DNA sequencer, designing the operating software and leading the engineering team. Prior to working at ABI, he developed thermal printers at Hewlett Packard as a manufacturing engineer and firmware engineer. Jones holds a BSEE and MSEE in Computer Engineering from the University of Washington.
About Fluidigm
Fluidigm develops and distributes systems based on integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) for analysis and synthesis of biomolecules in nano- and pico-volume environments. The company's vision is to create and to lead a new industry in which IFCs deliver previously inconceivable efficiencies to diverse fields. Fluidigm currently markets a hardware, software and consumables system for protein crystallization and has several new applications in its pipeline, including high throughput analysis of nucleic acids and proteins and detection of very rare sequences in a high-background sample. Based in South San Francisco, California, the Company is privately held and backed by premier investors: Versant Ventures, Euclid SR Partners, InterWest Partners, Lehman Brothers Healthcare Fund, Bruce Burrows, the Singapore EDB, Lilly BioVentures, the Invus Group, GE Equity, SightLine Partners, and Alloy Ventures.