Wuxi Nextcode Inc., of Shanghai, appointed Rob Brainin executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO), and Alex Fowkes chief strategy officer and executive vice president for innovation. Brainin worked previously at Illumina Inc., of San Diego, where he was vice president and general manager of life sciences and applied genomics. He has 15 years of experience leading the product development, market development and commercialization of life sciences and genomics technologies. Fowkes has served as COO since joining Wuxi Nextcode from Wuxi Apptec earlier in the year. In his new position, he will oversee the growth and execution of key large-scale strategic projects that are expected to underpin much of the growth of the global platform.