Chris Morgan of HP Joins Stratasys Executive Team as Chief Marketing Officer & SVP

If you needed further evidence that 3D printing is no longer the technology of the future but a major linchpin of economic growth and ongoing stability, look at what’s happening in the industry’s leadership. Stratasys, which is without question a one of the brightest, global stars in the additive manufacturing, 3D printing firmament, has just announced its appointment of Chris Morgan as its new Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Morgan, has spent 25 years at HP, including serving as Senior Vice President of HP’s printing and imaging business in the Japan/Asia Pacific region from 2004 to 2009; he was instrumental in establishing his former company as a leader in the graphics solutions market. Previously, from 2001 to 2004, he was the driving force behind HP’s global marketing strategy in printing and imaging. Morgan knows printing and knows how critical being at the forefront of 3D printing is for Stratasys.

His hiring is an interesting one as HP has recently announced that they too will be entering the 3D printing space in a big way come 2016.  Promising to present a new Multi-Jet Fusion technology into the market that will speed up the 3D printing process considerably over machines manufactured by companies like Stratasys and 3D Systems, there is no doubt that HP has others within the industry a bit flustered.  Perhaps Stratasys feels that Morgan could be the perfect marketing executive to fend off this new competition.

Morgan will take the Senior VP helm under Stratsys’s Executive VP, Dan Yalon. The company’s CEO, David Reis, said of Morgan in the company’s press release yesterday, “Chris is an accomplished senior executive with an impressive background of building and growing multi-billion dollar businesses and developing high-performance organizations.”

Morgan takes his new post immediately as he assumes responsibility for the global marketing activities of Stratasys. He will oversee the development of an ambitious, global strategy and will build a team worthy of Stratasys’s meteoric, worldwide expansion and accelerated growth.

Stratasys, which is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel and Minneapolis, Minnesota, is one of the leading providers worldwide of additive manufacturing and 3D printing solutions. Stratasys can boast of its patented PolyJet™, FDM®, and WDM™ 3D printing technologies, which produces manufactured goods as well as prototypes from 3D CAD files (as well as other 3D platforms).

It will be fascinating to see where Chris Morgan takes the company, which has already reached, well, stratospheric heights. Will his inside knowledge of HP provide Stratasys with more than just an employee, possibly information and processes which could help Stratasys better compete in a more competitive market? Let’s hear your thoughts on Stratasys’ new senior vice president and CMO.  Discuss in the Stratasys Hires HP Executive forum thread on 3DPB.com.