Supporting effective educational programs through volunteer and

mentoring opportunities

We have expanded our work and partnerships with community colleges to encompass career technical programs nationally. Twist commits to sharing insightful industry perspectives with community college advisory boards to help shape and inform curricula and the development of career technical education programs. Twisters provide mentorship for students by participating in mock interviews, critiquing student resumes and cover letters, hosting career panel discussions, and providing industry presentations.

Race & Ethnicity at Twist

Since our founding, diversity has been very important to Twist. As of October 15, 2020, our data show that we are made up of 9% Latinx, 3% Black, 4% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 39% Asian, 7% Two or More Races, and several American Indian/ Alaskan Native Twisters. Our executives also come from diverse backgrounds, with many born outside of the US.

Employee volunteer time off

As a company dedicated to social responsibility and encouraging our employees’ philanthropic efforts, we are proud to announce that in fiscal year 2023, Twist employees volunteered a total of 1,143 hours for various causes and organizations they are passionate about. This achievement was made possible through our Volunteer Time Off program, which provides each employee with eight paid hours per year for volunteering. Through our recent community partnerships, we are committed to increasing the number of employee-volunteered hours annually in the communities where we operate.

Life Science Cares

Twist is proud to be part of the Life Science Cares (LS Cares) initiative, a coalition of life science companies dedicated to addressing poverty and inequality in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Diego regions. Through this initiative, our employees have the opportunity to engage with impactful partner organizations. Moving forward, we will continue to collaborate with LS Cares to identify opportunities for involvement with organizations within their network. LS Cares focuses on addressing three fundamental gaps: survival, education, and sustainability.

Toy drive

This past holiday season Twist once again partnered with Life Science Cares to give back to the community with a STEM toy drive. The toys were donated to a Bay Area organization and distributed to lateelementary and middle school-aged children. While the toys were distributed in the Bay Area, all Twisters across geographies had the opportunity to donate. Our partner organization works to bridge the opportunity gap by bringing together diverse communities of schools, families, businesses, and volunteers to show students what’s possible for their future, build their confidence and empower them to achieve and thrive.

International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation

Twist Bioscience has been a strong supporter of iGEM, a global synthetic biology competition that originally focused on undergraduate students and has since expanded to include high school students, entrepreneurs, community laboratories, and beyond. As a supporter, Twist revolutionized how iGEM competition teams contribute to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, a free online database for synthetic biologists. Now, teams can submit their part sequences and documentation to the Registry, and Twist will synthesize samples of these parts for the upcoming year’s competition. Twist offers each participating team up to 10 kb of synthetic DNA for their project. Twist generously provided 807,128 total base pairs of DNA and 697 total genes, to 97 iGEM teams to support their projects in fiscal year 2023.

Employee Engagement

Twist conducts an annual employee engagement survey focused on cultural consistency to measure and observe the alignment between culture and behavior; to measure the day-to-day behaviors of employees and to rigorously determine how they drive the success of the organization. 

Our executive leadership team has identified specific initiatives for each department based on feedback from our annual employee engagement survey. Each executive is responsible for achieving one key objective that aligns with their department’s goals and supports our efforts to improve employee engagement. To foster open communication and engagement, Twist hosts all-company meetings twice a month and monthly managers meetings, where the CEO facilitates Q&A sessions with employees. We also maintain a robust intranet platform that provides regular updates about company activities and events. “The Strand” is where Twisters frequently visit to stay informed about everything that is happening.

Women at Twist

We are very proud of the fact that there is no glass ceiling for women at Twist.

As of September 30, 2023, our Board of Directors is made up of 33% women; our CEO is a woman; our executive team is comprised of 42% women. Women make up 43% of our revenue-generating positions and are present throughout every level of the organization.