Ultimaker Names John Kawola as North American President and Opens New Boston Office

Without question Ultimaker is one of the most respected 3D printer manufacturers in the industry. Their family of high-quality 3D printers regularly find themselves atop many of the Best Of lists from well-respected publications like Make: Magazine and Digital Trends. Their Ultimaker 2 3D printer has time and again set new standards for how a quality desktop 3D printer should be constructed and how easy it should be to operate. It offers some of the highest quality layer resolution using some of the most diverse 3D printing filaments available in its class. The five-year-old tech company’s continued, global success really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

The Netherlands-based 3D printer manufacturer is announcing that they are continuing with their aggressive push into the North American market by tapping John Kawola as their new President of Ultimaker North America. Additionally, they will be opening a brand new sales office located in Boston, which will be Ultimaker’s third corporate office located in the United States. Boston was specifically chosen because of the longstanding connections to the early 3D printing industry, not to mention its connections to the development of 3D CAD software.

John Kawola, President of Ultimaker North America.

“Desktop 3D printing is still in its infancy, it has made significant strides in the last few years and the potential is unlimited. I have been very impressed with how Ultimaker has focused on the maker, education and enterprise markets, built a strong product and quickly moved to a market leadership position. I am thrilled to be a part of it,” said the newly appointed president of Ultimaker North America, John Kawola.

Ultimaker describes John Kawola as a passionate 3D printing evangelist, and he certainly has the résumé to match. Not only was he the the CEO of mobile robotics manufacturer Harvest Automation and the Board Director at 3D software developer SpaceClaim, but he was the CEO and President of Z Corporation. Z Corp was purchased by 3D Systems back in 2012 and was basically the company that developed the line of industrial 3D printers that are currently keeping 3D Systems afloat while it works off the debt racked up from the failed Cube line of desktop 3D printers. The Cornell, Rensselaer Polytechnic and Union College graduate is pretty much exactly the person who you would want to be the new president for your 3D printer manufacturing company while you’re planning a massive global expansion.

Under Kawola’s leadership, Ultimaker expects that their new Boston location will lead their North American sales marketing and community management teams in supporting their growing stable of US-based distributors and resellers. The location will also be leveraged to offer their growing US customer base technical and sales support. Ultimaker began its expansion into the US back in 2013 when they opened their in New York and San Francisco, two cities that also have deep 3D printing roots. They also opened their North American manufacturing and assembly facility in Memphis, Tennessee in the same year.

The Ultimaker family of desktop 3D printers include their DIY Ultimaker Original kit and the Original+ kit, the Ultimaker 2, the portable Ultimaker 2 Go and the large-scale Ultimaker 2 Extended. They also offer a full line of add-on kits, including a heated bed option, a dual extruder option and their extrusion upgrade kit. Their line of official 3D printing filaments includes fourteen colors of PLA, three ABS options and six CPE filament options. You can find out more about Ultimaker and all of their products over on their website. Discuss in the Ultimaker New CEO forum over at 3DPB.com.