Press Releases

DNAnexus Enhances Leadership to Fuel AI Innovation and Biopharma Expansion

Company appoints Pieter De Leenheer as Chief Technology Officer and Todd Oakland as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Biopharma Business Dx/Rx

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Aug. 27, 2025 — DNAnexus, Inc., provider of the leading enterprise platform for precision health data, today announced key additions to its leadership team with the appointment of Pieter De Leenheer, PhD, as Chief Technology Officer and Todd Oakland, PhD, as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Biopharma Business Dx/Rx. Together, these industry veterans bring more than four decades of strategic leadership expertise driving product innovation and scaling enterprise software solutions within healthcare and life sciences settings. In conjunction with these announcements, George Asimenos, PhD, has transitioned from Chief AI Officer to Chief Product Officer, where he will focus on the strategic vision and future direction of the DNAnexus platform.

“I’m thrilled to welcome both Pieter and Todd to the DNAnexus executive team,” said Thomas Laur, CEO at DNAnexus. “They bring outstanding leadership experience and a deep understanding of the complex challenges facing our industry. Their expertise will be instrumental to continue to advance our long-term AI and platform innovation strategies as we grow our biopharma business and further precision health for all.”

Dr. De Leenheer is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and computer scientist with more than 20 years of experience in developing data-driven technologies. He previously served as Chief Technology Officer at 1upHealth, a health data platform company, and ZenOptics, an analytics catalog and governance software company. He also co-founded Collibra, a global data intelligence company, where he served as Chief Science Officer and helped scale the business to more than 500 enterprise customers, raising more than $600 million in funding. Dr. De Leenheer has held academic positions at Harvard Business School, Columbia University, and San Diego Supercomputer Center, and currently serves as an advisor to the European Commission. He holds a PhD in computer science and artificial intelligence from Vrije Universiteit Brussels. 

“This is an exciting time to join DNAnexus as we are at the center of realizing the full potential of  peta-scale data management infrastructure that connects researchers with multimodal clinico-genomic data, advanced tools, and AI,” said Dr. De Leenheer. “I am eager to collaborate with this talented team to scale our platform innovations and enable our growing customer base to better integrate their healthcare data and extract value to fuel precision medicine workflows.”

Dr. Oakland joins DNAnexus from ConcertAI, where he served as Vice President and Product Lead for precision oncology solutions, helping deliver AI-powered SaaS and real-world data solutions to pharmaceutical and diagnostic organizations. Previously, he held leadership roles at Aitia and GNS Healthcare with a focus on utilizing advanced analytics to build real-world evidence and enhance customer value. Dr. Oakland began his career in translational science and academia, with roles at the University of Chicago and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He holds a PhD in virology from the University of Chicago, an MPH in quantitative methods from Harvard, and a BS in molecular biology from Purdue University.

“Recent advancements in multiomic, single-cell, and imaging technologies are accelerating the arrival of next-generation precision health data, and DNAnexus is at the forefront of this transformation,” said Dr. Oakland. “We’re developing scalable tools and workflows that span therapeutic areas, empowering our biopharma partners to manage data complexity, uncover critical insights, and drive actionable outcomes.”

DNAnexus currently supports more than 60,000 registered users across 48 countries and actively manages more than 125 petabytes of complex clinical, genomic, proteomic, and other multiomic datasets on behalf of a growing network of collaborators. The company’s comprehensive enterprise platform meets the most rigorous industry standards for precision health data quality, security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. They recently launched the GenAI-powered Omics Data Assistant, now available in early access, to help accelerate discovery for non-technical early access users.

About DNAnexus
DNAnexus, the enterprise platform for precision health data, is on a mission to accelerate the development, approval, and delivery of personalized treatments. Building on more than 15 years of bioinformatics innovation and genomics expertise, DNAnexus powers a connected data ecosystem trusted by the world’s precision health leaders. This flexible ecosystem makes omics and real-world data accessible, actionable, and secure while unlocking insights that improve patient lives. For more information, visit www.dnanexus.com or follow @DNAnexus on social media.