Ginkgo Bioworks, the organism company, today announced that Christian Henry, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Illumina, has joined the company's board of directors.

"Christian brings a wealth of experience to Ginkgo's Board. As a leader of a company that changed how the world reads and understands genetic information, he helped set the stage for what is becoming possible now with DNA synthesis and organism engineering," said Jason Kelly, CEO and cofounder of Ginkgo Bioworks. "We're thrilled to have Christian on our Board as Ginkgo continues to grow and shape how biology will reach new markets."

With over 20 years of business leadership experience, including more than 10 years at Illumina, Mr. Henry has a broad background in finance, management, and strategy. While at Illumina, Mr. Henry has held a number of roles, including Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Financial Officer, General Manager of Life Sciences and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. Prior to Illumina, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Tickets.com and the Vice President of Finance of Affymetrix, Inc. Today he sits on a number of boards across the genomics and broader biotech industries.

"Ginkgo Bioworks is building a powerful platform for engineering biology that will change manufacturing the way that DNA sequencing is changing medicine," said Mr. Henry. "I'm delighted to serve on Ginkgo's Board during this exciting time in the company's growth."

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Headquartered in Boston, Ginkgo Bioworks uses the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow products instead of manufacture them. The company's technology platform is bringing biotechnology into a wide range of new markets, enabling fragrance, beauty, food, and health companies to make better products. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.