Former Xaar CEO Dr Douglas Edwards has today become EFI’s chief technology officer (CTO). Edwards - who was also chairman of Xaar 3D, Xaar’s 3D venture with Stratasys - replaces longtime technology leader Ghilad Dziesietnik, who recently retired from EFI after nearly 25 years, the last 14 as CTO.
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 $800m. Prior to that, Edwards ran Kodak's prepress solutions business, with revenues of $1.5bn. He joined Kodak from Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG), a 50/50 joint venture between Eastman Kodak and Sun Chemical Corporation, where he was vice president of R&D. He has also held R&D leadership roles with International Paper, Zeneca Specialties and Ilford Photographic in the UK.
"Doug possesses one of the best technological backgrounds in our industry, and combines technology with demonstrated business accomplishments," said EFI Chairman and CEO Jeff Jacobson. "I had the pleasure of working closely with Doug - when I was the CEO of KPG, as well as when I was the COO of Kodak's Graphic Communications business - and I cannot think of a better person in our industry to lead EFI's strategic and technology developments."
Edwards, who is based in EFI's Manchester, NH facility, said: "EFI was a customer of mine while with Xaar, and I am very aware of the unique opportunity EFI has now 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.
Edwards has a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and a Ph.D. in conducting organic materials - both from London University. He has several patents, scientific papers and books to his credit in topics such as solid-state conductivity and photographic materials. He has also published research in textile dyeing, including work on the aqueous solution behavior of anionic azo dyes for textile fibres.
