EFI appoints new CTO

Edwards had an extensive career as a senior print executive and R&D technologist working as CEO of Cambridge, England-based Xaar, president of Kodak's Digital Printing and Enterprise Business.  He also ran Kodak's largest graphics business, Prepress Solutions, with revenues of $1.5 billion. 

‘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. ‘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.’

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 fibers.

‘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,’ commented Edwards. ‘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.’