deSouza brings decades of experience leading global, innovation-driven companies, both as an entrepreneur and growing large, complex companies
Deel today announced the election of tech veteran and entrepreneur Francis deSouza to its board of directors. deSouza’s extensive background in leading and expanding complex businesses will bring significant expertise to Deel.
deSouza is a co-founder of SynthLabs, pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and technology for transparent, auditable AI alignment and safety. deSouza was previously Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Illumina, the global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies. Under his leadership, Illumina grew to $4.6 billion in 2022 revenue, serving 9,500 customers in 150+ countries. Before Illumina, deSouza was President at Symantec, a leading provider of cybersecurity and enterprise data management solutions. He joined Symantec through the acquisition of IMlogic, where he was co-founder and CEO. He also led a product group at Microsoft, following Microsoft’s acquisition of Flash Communications, where he was co-founder and CEO. deSouza has served on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Corporation and Citrix.
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Since its inception five years ago, Deel has grown rapidly, serving 25,000+ customers including Nike, Hermes, Reddit, and Shopify, has already achieved over $500 million in annual recurring revenue in 2024, and has been profitable for over a year and a half. Deel recently acquired African payroll company PaySpace, giving it the most native payroll engines of any global payroll provider.
Co-founder and CEO of Deel Alex Bouaziz highlighted the strategic importance of deSouza’s addition, stating, “We have ambitious goals ahead, including serving more complex enterprise customers. We’ll continue to expand our products and services to help companies seamlessly manage payroll and HR globally. The next five years promise to be pivotal in shaping the future of Deel and the global work landscape. Francis’s contributions will be instrumental in helping us achieve our vision for the future of global work.”
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