LEHI, Utah and SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, today announced three new appointments to its growing leadership team. As the world’s largest consumer genomics provider, having genotyped 2.5 million DNA samples, Ancestry is continuing to add to its roster of talent as it seeks to help millions of consumers better understand themselves and the world around them by unlocking the secrets hidden in their genes.
The three appointments announced today:
Amy Gershkoff, Ph.D., most recently the chief data officer at Zynga, is joining as Ancestry’s first chief data officer.
Sarah South, Ph.D., who previously served as vice president of Laboratory Operations at 23andme, has been appointed as vice president of Laboratory Sciences
Todd Davis, who has led global talent acquisition at both Amazon and Dropbox, is joining as vice president of Global Talent.
“Amy, Sarah and Todd are joining in three roles that will have immense impact for Ancestry as we’re focused on continuing to provide powerful insights to our community and they more than live up to the best of the best we strive for when bringing on new talent,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive officer of Ancestry. “We are struck daily by how the insights we provide can powerfully reshape someone’s understanding of who they are and how they fit into the bigger puzzle of our species. We’re excited to have Amy, Sarah and Todd help us focus on bringing new insights, products and growth.”
Gershkoff, South and Davis bring incredible track records in their respective fields, and will help Ancestry continue to grow and innovate while providing consumers unmatched insights into their identities derived from the Company’s unique combination of genomic and genealogical data.
Amy Gershkoff was most recently the chief data officer at Zynga, a pioneer in social gaming. Previously, she built and led the Customer Analytics & Insights team and led the Global Data Science team at eBay. Before eBay, Gershkoff was the chief data scientist for WPP, Data Alliance, where she worked across WPP’s more than 350 operating companies worldwide to create integrated data and technology solutions. As the head of media planning at Obama for America for the 2012 campaign, she architected Obama’s advertising strategy and designed the campaign’s analytics systems. Her work has brought numerous accolades, including being featured in The Washington Post as one of the nation’s most prominent innovators and being named one of the “Top 50 Women to Watch in Tech” and one of San Francisco’s Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business TImes. She holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University.
Prior to joining Ancestry, Sarah South was the vice president of Laboratory Services at 23andme. She is certified in clinical cytogenetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG). Previously, South was associate professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah. She also served as a medical director at ARUP Laboratories and oversaw the Cytogenetic and Genomic Microarray Laboratories and directed the ABMGG clinical cytogenetics training program at the University of Utah. Sarah has also been the CLIA lab director for Lineagen. Her industry associations include, vice-chair of the American College of Medical Genetics Quality Assurance Committee; a member of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute Expert Panel for Molecular Methodologies and the ClinGen variant classification workgroup; a certified College of American Pathology Laboratory Inspector, and president of the American Cytogenetics Association. South also serves as an associate editor for the American Journal of Medical Genetics. She received her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Human Genetics, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in prenatal genetics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a clinical cytogenetics fellowship at the University of Utah.
Todd Davis joins Ancestry from Dropbox, where he led global talent acquisition. Prior to Dropbox, Davis spent four years leading Amazon’s global efforts to find and recruit across the company. Before joining Amazon in 2012, Davis was vice president, worldwide recruitment at Warner Bros. Entertainment, where he led efforts to improve global recruitment and talent acquisition resources by leveraging “best practices” in talent assessment and selection. He has also held senior positions at Centene Corporation, West Coast University and Volt Information Sciences. Davis is a board member of CASY and MSCCN and holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Hampshire.
About Ancestry
Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, harnesses the information found in family trees, historical records, and DNA to help people gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Ancestry has more than 2.4 million paying subscribers across its core Ancestry websites and more than 2.5 million DNA samples in the AncestryDNA database. Since 1996, more than 19 billion records have been added, and users have created more than 80 million family trees on the Ancestry flagship site and its affiliated international websites. Ancestry offers a suite of family history products and services including AncestryDNA, Archives, ProGenealogists, Newspapers.com and Fold3.