Activist Investor Carl Icahn's Pick Joins Illumina Board

Activist investor Carl Icahn has successfully gained sufficient backing from Illumina shareholders to remove the biotech company's board chair, John Thompson. In contrast, the company's CEO, Francis deSouza, survived the proxy vote. Andrew Teno, one of Icahn's board nominees, has been voted into the nine-member board. Icahn, owning a 1.4% stake in Illumina, had accused the company's executive management of poor oversight, especially concerning the $7.1 billion acquisition of cancer test maker Grail in 2021. This acquisition has been the focus of antitrust regulator attention in the US and Europe, with the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission opposing it. Illumina is currently appealing these decisions.