EFI has named Dr Douglas Edwards as its new chief technology officer (CTO).

Mr Edwards replaces long-time technology leader Ghilad Dziesietnik, who recently retired after nearly 25 years with EFI – the last 14 of which he served as CTO.

Mr Edwards, who assumes his new duties immediately, has had an extensive career as a senior print executive and R&D technologist. Immediately prior to this appointment, Mr Edwards was CEO at inkjet printhead specialist Xaar, as well as chairman of Xaar 3D, the company’s 3D printing joint venture with Stratasys.

Before joining Xaar in 2015, Mr Edwards was president of Kodak’s Digital Printing and Enterprise Business with responsibility for flexo packaging, functional printing, electrophotographic technology, and commercial and consumer inkjet options. These had combined revenues of around $800 million. Prior to this, Mr Edwards ran Kodak’s largest graphics business, Prepress Solutions, with revenues of $1.5 billion. Edwards joined Kodak from Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG), a 50/50 joint venture between Eastman Kodak and Sun Chemical, where he was vice president of R&D. He has also held senior R&D leadership roles with International Paper, Zeneca Specialties (formerly ICI Colors & Fine Chemicals) and Ilford Photographic in the UK. He has several patents, scientific papers and books in his name on topics such as solid-state conductivity and photographic materials. He has also published research in textile dyeing, including work on the aqueous solution behaviour of anionic azo dyes for textile fibres.

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.

‘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.’

Mr Edwards 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.

‘Dating back to my time with Kodak and KPG, I have long appreciated Jeff Jacobson’s approach to innovation and technology development. I look forward to working with him and the global EFI team to drive our customers’ success in high-quality print production.’

Xaar has today named Ian Tichias as its new CFO having previously confirmed Dr John Mills as CEO, replacing Mr Edwards.