UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
CURRENT REPORT
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| Item 5.02 | Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. |
On May 3, 2023, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Twist Bioscience Corporation (the “Company”) appointed Robert F. Werner as the Company’s chief accounting officer and principal accounting officer, effective May 22, 2023. James Thorburn, the Company’s chief financial officer, previously served as principal accounting officer and will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer and principal financial officer.
Mr. Werner, age 50, previously served as the chief accounting officer and principal accounting officer of Invitae Corporation, a biotechnology company, from May 2020 to May 2023, and as the Corporate Controller of Invitae from September 2017 to May 2020. From February 2015 to September 2017, Mr. Werner served as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller of Proteus Digital Health, Inc., a digital medicine pharmaceuticals company. Prior to that, Mr. Werner served as Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer of CardioDx, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company, from March 2012 to February 2015. Mr. Werner is a Certified Public Accountant and started his career at Ernst & Young LLP. Mr. Werner holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Accountancy in Professional Accounting from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management.
Mr. Werner will receive an annual base salary of $400,000, a bonus of $100,000 for fiscal year 2023, and a new hire equity grant consisting of 30,000 restricted stock units. The award will vest over four years with a one year cliff. There are no family relationships between Mr. Werner and any of the Company’s directors or executive officers and he has no direct or indirect material interest in any transaction required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.
On May 23, 2023, the Company issued a press release announcing Mr. Werner’s appointment as chief accounting officer, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K.
| Item 9.01 | Financial Statements and Exhibits. |
| (d) | Exhibits. |
| Exhibit No. | Description | |
| 99.1 | Press release dated May 23, 2023 titled “Twist Bioscience Appoints Robert Werner as Chief Accounting Officer” | |
| 104 | Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL) |
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
| Date: May 23, 2023 | Twist Bioscience Corporation |
| /s/ William E. Solis | |
| William E. Solis | |
| Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary |
Exhibit 99.1
Twist Bioscience Appoints Robert Werner as Chief Accounting Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – May 23, 2023 – Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced the appointment of Robert Werner as chief accounting officer.
“Rob has a proven track record of leading corporate and technical accounting, including for global companies as they grow in revenue,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “He will be an invaluable addition as Twist continues to gain market share and execute against our plan to achieve adjusted EBITDA breakeven for the core and biopharma businesses at the close of the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024.”
“I have spent the entirety of my career in finance and accounting, with over a decade in biotech, and am proud to join a company with a technology that has so many real world applications,” said Mr. Werner. “Twist’s unique DNA synthesis platform and ability to write DNA at scale can enable customers across industries to complete groundbreaking research in health and sustainability. I’m looking forward to applying my experience at Twist at this pivotal moment in the company’s evolution, as it transitions toward profitability.”
Mr. Werner was most recently chief accounting officer at Invitae, Inc., where his responsibilities included revenue accounting, corporate accounting, payroll, equity administration, treasury, cost accounting, external reporting, technical accounting and internal audit. He also built out the accounting function to support the growth of the company. During his time at Invitae, the company grew from $68 million in revenue to $516 million in revenue. Prior to Invitae, Mr. Werner served as vice president of finance and corporate controller at Proteus Digital Health. He previously served as corporate controller and principal accounting officer at CardioDx and as Corporate Controller at Bloom Energy. He held a series of roles of increasing responsibility at Spansion, Inc. (a spinoff of Advanced Micro Devices). Mr. Werner is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Master’s of accountancy in professional accounting and a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management.
About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.
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Twist Bioscience Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding plans and timing to achieve adjusted EBITDA break-even point for Twist Bioscience's core business and biopharma business, Twist Bioscience’s path to profitability, market opportunities, expansion plans, and Twist Bioscience’s other expectations regarding its future operations plans and financial performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause Twist Bioscience’s actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the ability to achieve the expected benefits of Twist Bioscience’s workforce reduction, transition of production to the Factory of the Future and reduced investments in DNA data storage; the ability to attract new customers and retain and grow sales from existing customers; the ability of Twist to achieve sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain positive cash flow from operations or profitability in any given period; risks and uncertainties of rapidly changing technologies and extensive competition in synthetic biology that could make the products Twist Bioscience is developing obsolete or non-competitive; uncertainties of the retention of significant customers; the ability of Twist Bioscience to successfully integrate acquired companies and to achieve expected benefits from acquisitions; supply chain and other disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise; risks of third party claims alleging infringement of patents and proprietary rights or seeking to invalidate Twist Bioscience’s patents or proprietary rights; and the risk that Twist Bioscience’s proprietary rights may be insufficient to protect its technologies. For a description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to Twist Bioscience’s business in general, see Twist Bioscience’s risk factors set forth in Twist Bioscience’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 8, 2023 and subsequent filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Twist Bioscience specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACTS:
For Twist Bioscience:
Angela
Bitting
SVP, Corporate Affairs
925- 202-6211
abitting@twistbioscience.com
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