MENLO PARK, Calif.–Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing a disruptive technology platform for real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution, today announced the appointment of Susan K. Barnes as Chief Financial Officer.

“Given the tremendous number of possible business opportunities we have for commercializing our Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) technology, her experience as a seasoned financial professional will be instrumental in helping us evaluate these opportunities and the resources required to make them successful.”

Susan Barnes has nearly 30 years experience in senior financial management. From 1997 to 2005, she was Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. Ms. Barnes started at Intuitive Surgical as its first full-time finance person during the company’s early development stages, and retired when it was a public company with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion and positive cash flow of more than $50 million a year.

From 1994 to 1996, Ms. Barnes was Managing Director of the Private Equity Group at Jefferies & Company. From 1991 to 1994, she was Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of Richard C. Blum and Associates, a merchant banking company with more than $500 million in funds under management. From 1985 to 1991, she served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NeXT Computer, Inc, a company she helped start with Steve Jobs after serving as Controller of the Macintosh Division at Apple Computer from 1981-85. Ms. Barnes received a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

“Susan has an outstanding track record of running financial operations for high growth companies with transformative technology,” said Hugh Martin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Biosciences. “Given the tremendous number of possible business opportunities we have for commercializing our Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) technology, her experience as a seasoned financial professional will be instrumental in helping us evaluate these opportunities and the resources required to make them successful.”

The appointment of a Chief Financial Officer at Pacific Biosciences reflects the company’s growth into a commercial enterprise requiring the expansion of its finance department to support world-wide operations. The company recently announced the first 10 customers for its PacBio RS, the first product to be commercially developed using the SMRT technology.

“I am excited about joining the exceptional team at Pacific Biosciences and bringing my financial experience and extensive relationships with the investment community to the company as it moves into its next phase of commercial growth,” said Ms. Barnes. “I believe PacBio’s sophisticated technology has the ability to change people’s lives in a positive way and this opportunity is a natural progression in my career history beginning with Apple and most recently Intuitive Surgical.”

Pacific Biosciences has raised $266 million to date to support the development of its revolutionary SMRT technology. For more information, visit www.pacificbiosciences.com.

About Pacific Biosciences

Pacific Biosciences’ mission is to transform the way humankind acquires, processes, and interprets data from living systems. The company has developed a disruptive technology platform for the real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution. Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) Biology promises to revolutionize the life sciences by revealing the underlying networks that define living systems. The first application for the SMRT Biology platform is a paradigm changing approach to DNA sequencing. SMRT technology will ultimately make it possible to sequence individual genomes as part of routine medical care. DNA sequencing is expected to be the first of many transformative SMRT Biology applications that will benefit society by driving radical advances in fields such as personalized medicine, agriculture, clean energy, and global health.