Before Illumina, deSouza was president of products and services at Symantec.[4][5] He joined Symantec in 2006 when Symantec acquired IMlogic, where deSouza was founder and CEO.[6] Prior to IMlogic, deSouza worked at Microsoft from 1998 to 2001 after Microsoft acquired Flash Communications, where deSouza was co-founder and CEO.[7]
Early life
He was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Elpinki, an Ethiopian/Greek mother, and Domingos, an Indian father. He was the second of five children.[8] His mother was a homemaker and his father was a commercial representative for Japanese trading company Itochu. Before he was 5, his family moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[9]
Following the 2017 divorce of deSouza and his wife Erica, the division of their cryptocurrency assets became a subject of dispute, drawing attention to how cryptocurrency assets are treated in divorce.[13][14]
Following Microsoft's acquisition of Flash, deSouza joined Microsoft and became a product unit manager, where he led the team responsible for the development of the company's enterprise real-time collaboration offerings, including instant messaging, chat, voice over IP and NetMeeting.[17]
IMlogic
DeSouza left Microsoft in 2001 and founded IMlogic, where he served as CEO[18] and grew the company into the market leading provider of instant messaging security.[19]
Symantec
DeSouza joined Symantec through the company's acquisition of IMlogic in February 2006.[20] DeSouza served as president of products and services at Symantec until November 11, 2013.[21][22] He led the research, product management, engineering, customer support and operations for Symantec's offerings, which generated $6.73 billion in revenue in FY11.[23]
Illumina
DeSouza was appointed president of ||Illumina, Inc.|| in November 2013, leading the company in envisioning, developing, and producing products.[24] In 2016, he was also appointed CEO.[25] On June 11, 2023, DeSouza announced his resignation effectively immediately following an aggressive board takeover attempt from ||Carl Icahn||.[26]
Board member
He served on the Board of Directors of Citrix Systems from December 2014 to June 2016.[27]
^DeSouza v. DeSouza, A156311 (City & County of San Francisco Super. 54 Cal. App.5th 25, 30 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020), August 10, 2020). Accessed 19 April 2023.
