Former Xaar CEO Doug Edwards has joined Electronics for Imaging Inc. as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) replacing Ghilad Dziesietnik, who retired after nearly 25 years with EFI – the last 14 as CTO. Prior to this appointment, Edwards was CEO of Cambridge, England-based Xaar plc, a developer of inkjet print head technologies for industrial printing. He was also the chairman of Xaar 3D Ltd. – the company’s 3D printing joint venture with Stratasys Ltd.
Before joining Xaar in 2015 Edwards was president of Kodak’s Digital Printing and Enterprise Business with responsibility for flexo packaging, functional printing, electrophotographic solutions, commercial and consumer inkjet solutions with combined revenues of around $800 million.
Prior to this, Edwards ran Kodak’s largest graphics business, Prepress Solutions, with revenues of $1.5 billion. Edwards joined Kodak from Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a 50/50 joint venture between Eastman Kodak and Sun Chemical Corporation, where he was VP of R&D.
Expressing his concern, EFI Chairman and CEO Jeff Jacobson said, “Doug possesses one of the best technological backgrounds in our industry, and combines technology with demonstrated business accomplishments. EFI has a history of providing its customers with a competitive advantage by keeping them at the forefront of technology.”
Jacobson shared memories of his association with Doug Edwards in the past. “I had the pleasure of working closely with Doug twice. First, when I was the CEO of KPG, and then when I was the chief operating officer of Kodak’s Graphic Communications business. I cannot think of a better person in our industry to lead EFI’s strategic and technology developments.”
Complementing Jacobson, Edwards stated, “Dating back to my time with Kodak and KPG, I have long appreciated Jeff Jacobson’s approach to innovation and technology development,” he added. “I look forward to working with him and the global EFI team to drive our customers’ success in high-quality print production.”
Edwards went on to mention that EFI was his customer while he was with Xaar. According to him, EFI has the unique opportunity to further develop a portfolio that includes many of the world’s leading digital inkjet and print workflow solutions. “EFI, with its printhead-agnostic approach, is leveraging technology from many different vendors, and I look forward to bringing my inkjet experience to help drive value from this strategy and further enhance EFI’s ‘best of breed’ approach,” he said.
