As an early pioneer in the high-throughput synthesis and sequencing of DNA, Dr. Leproust is disrupting the process of gene synthesis to enable the exponential growth of synthetic biology applications in multiple fields including medicine, DNA data storage, agricultural biology, and industrial chemicals. In 2015, she was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers for fast-tracking the building blocks of life, and Fast Company named her one of the most creative people in business for synthesizing DNA faster than ever. Prior to Twist Bioscience, she held escalating positions at Agilent Technologies where she architected the successful SureSelect product line that lowered the cost of sequencing and elucidated mechanisms responsible for dozens of Mendelian diseases. She also developed the Oligo Library Synthesis technology, where she initiated and led product and business development activities for the team. Dr. Leproust designed and developed multiple commercial synthesis platforms to streamline microarray manufacturing and fabrication. Prior to Agilent, she worked with Dr. X. Gao at the University of Houston developing DNA and RNA parallel synthesis processes on solid support, a project developed commercially by Xeotron Corporation. Dr. Leproust has published over 30  peer-reviewed papers—many on applications of synthetic DNA, and is the author of numerous patents.  She earned her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Houston and her M.Sc. in industrial chemistry from the Lyon School of Industrial Chemistry in France.

Bill is a seasoned entrepreneur and silicon engineering expert. He has been a founder or first employee at four different start-ups and advises early stage startups. As VP of hardware engineering at Complete Genomics, he built their sequencing technology and delivered three generations of human genome chips and sequencers. Bill has twice been awarded multi-million dollar DARPA grants for the development of innovative technologies based on silicon micro machining. Bill’s career spans research, product development, and semiconductor device processing. He holds a PhD in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona, an MS in Electrical Science from University of Michigan, and served as Staff Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Bill Peck is an expert in managing difficult technology projects and delivering robust scalable biological manufacturing processes. At Complete Genomics he developed sequencer fluidics systems, including silicon nano-array flowcell, and oversaw instrument integration into Human Genome Sequencing Factory. At Agilent, Bill architected two generations of their high density microarray manufacturing platforms. In addition to his experience in chemical process automation and hardware development, Bill’s technical expertise is in nanofluidics with original research in birth evolution and decay of turbulence created by droplets. As a post-doc fellow at Stanford/NASA-Ames, Bill researched computational fluid mechanics and developed a numerical code to model free surface flows.

Mr. Thorburn is a seasoned technology executive with more than 30 years of finance and
operating experience in both private and public technology companies. Prior to Twist
Bioscience, he served as Chief Sales Officer of Televerde, a demand generation and sales
acceleration enterprise, focused on scaling the business internationally. Prior to Televerde, he
served as interim CFO of several public and private companies including Enercore, Next
Autoworks, Fisker Automotive and Numonyx (acquired by Micron). As interim CFO of Numonyx,
he was responsible for coordination of the merger between ST Microelectronics and the Intel
Flash Memory divisions as well as the financing to support the $2B revenue company. Before
Numonyx, he served as chairman and CEO of ZiLOG, leading the successful turnaround of the
business, public offering and ultimate sale to IXYS. Jim has served as an operator consultant to
Texas Pacific Group (TPG), COO and Co-President of ON Semiconductor and led the buyout and
IPO of ON. Prior to ON Jim held various senior executive financial positions in the business
units of National Semiconductor. Mr. Thorburn is a former member of the Board of Directors
for IXYS Corporation. He received his BSc (Hons.) in Agricultural Economics from the University
of Glasgow and passed the Chartered Institute Management Accountant exams.

Aaron is a proven biologics leader adept at managing teams to discover and develop novel first-in-class antibody therapeutics. Prior to Twist Bioscience, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of LakePharma, leading the California Antibody Center, which discovers novel antibody therapeutics for its clients. Prior to LakePharma, he oversaw all discovery research functions both as Vice President of Protein Sciences at Surrozen, and previously, as Vice President of Research at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. He also served as Senior Director of Antibody Engineering at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for human antibody lead discovery and he served as project team leader on several key antibody projects through IND filing. Before OncoMed, Aaron held positions of increasing responsibility at Dyax Corp., most recently as Senior Director of Lead Discovery, leading antibody, peptide, and small protein discovery using their proprietary phage display technology. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied MHC class II structure-function relationships. He is an author of over 30 peer reviewed papers and 40 issued patents in the antibody space.

Ray is a seasoned executive, bringing his unique perspective as a clinician-scientist leading and growing start-up companies. He joins Twist Bioscience from Aravive Biologics (now Aravive, Inc.) where he was a Founder and the Executive Chairman of the Board. He remains a non-executive Director. Concurrently, he ran 526 Ventures, a strategic consulting company working with multiple public and private biopharmaceutical companies. Previously, he served as a venture partner at Bay City Capital LLC. Prior to his time at Bay City Capital, he held a number of executive positions in biotechnology companies including Chief Scientific Officer of Aviir and Vice President of Translational Research for VIA Pharmaceuticals. Before moving to industry, Ray was a practicing cardiologist and an Adjunct Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Stanford University. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School and trained as an internist and cardiologist at Stanford University, while also receiving finance education at Stanford Business School. He has received numerous honors and research awards, has authored several peer reviewed papers, and is an inventor on multiple patents.

Patrick is a diversified and well rounded executive and serial entrepreneur with a wide range of experience in building, integrating and managing businesses across diverse market segments. His detailed understanding of highly technical manufacturing work flows and products is complemented by a proven track record of successfully creating organizations, product lines, technologies and processes to maximize performance. Prior to Twist Bioscience, Patrick consulted for a wide range of life science companies both to build start-up organizations and execute turnarounds. Previously, he served as President and CEO of Operon Biotechnologies Inc., a global leader of DNA synthesis services, where he turned around the business from net loss to profitability in a short period of time. He restructured the business, eventually negotiating a successful merger with Eurofins SA. Prior to Operon, he founded Xeragon, an international provider of RNA synthesis and bioinformatics products (now QIAGEN). Patrick received his MSc in Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics and Economics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He is an author of several issued patents.

Patrick has a strong track record of high-growth sales in bioreagent, B2B and custom manufacturing organizations. His technical background paired with his ability to identify customer's unmet needs make him the ideal fit to lead our commercial organization. Before Twist Bioscience, Paddy served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Enzymatics (recently acquired by QIAGEN), leading commercial activities for North America and Europe, delivering significant top line growth and expanding the base of business to business customers. Prior to Enzymatics, Paddy held positions with increasing commercial focus, including Director of Business Development at Agilent Technologies, Director of Product Development for Beckman Coulter Molecular Diagnostics, and multiple technical roles in product development within Invitrogen and GE Healthcare/Amersham International. In addition, Paddy currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Lasergen and previously served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Enzymatics. He holds a PhD in Nucleic Acid Chemistry from Southampton University and a BSc Hons in Chemistry from Heriot-Watt University.

Paula Green is an experienced human resources executive with a track record of developing and delivering high-impact people strategies, solutions, processes and tools that support leadership competencies to empower a high performing organization. Prior to Twist Bioscience, she served as Vice President, Head of Human Resources at QIAGEN, where she oversaw 50 human resources professionals supporting 4,000 employees through mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and other pivotal corporate transactions. She was the human resources manager for Operon Technologies (acquired by QIAGEN) where her responsibilities included creating strategy, overseeing benefits for all employees, and delivering training, recruitment and retention programs.  She also worked as a Human Resources Consultant for the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Paula holds a BS in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco. 

Mark joined Twist Bioscience in August 2016, bringing more than 25 years of experience as a seasoned legal officer with extensive technology and biotechnology industry expertise at Fortune 500 companies.  Prior to joining Twist Bioscience, Mark was vice president, law and deputy chief corporate compliance officer at Broadcom in Irvine, California. Before that, he spent 20 years in positions of increasing responsibility in the legal department at Amgen, where his last role was vice president and associate general counsel. Mark’s law firm experience includes time at Irell & Manella in Century City, California, and Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Skadden Arps in Manhattan. Mark was a law clerk to Judge Dickran Tevrizian (ret.) on the Federal District Court in Los Angeles. He served as an adjunct professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California where he taught Food and Drug Law.  Mark received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his B.S. with honors from Cornell University.