A 3D printing company, Carbon is welcoming a new ambitious CEO as it goes past the startup phase. Former DuPont CEO and Chairman Ellen Kullman is replacing the CEO and President of Carbon, Joe DeSimone. Carbon is a 3-D printing tech enterprise well known for its production partnerships with Ford, Adidas, and Ikea.
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The change is effective right away. The company announced this on Nov 21, 2019. Joe DeSimone has been the CEO of Carbon since it was launched in 2013. The change will see DeSimone take the role of executive chairman of the board.
Kullman has been serving on the board of directors at the company since 2016. According to her, she sees her new role as a collaboration with the firm’s CEO. The incoming CEO describes the outgoing CEO as a storyteller and scientist. She describes DeSimone him a perfectly-paired with her knowledge in business operations, process, and scaling companies internationally.
Kullman is a native of Delaware and resides at the East Coast. She will be moving to the West Coast shortly after the Thanksgiving celebration. “I always told people if I was going to go back in an operating role it would have to be a compelling company,” she said. “That’s Carbon for me. . . . It’s compelling to me. I wouldn’t take on this position if it wasn’t.” Kullman explained.
Throughout her tenure at Dupont, Kullman achieved twice digit growth in the safety and protection division of DuPont. This is the company that manufactures materials such as Nomex and Kevlar. The materials are utilized to make suits, gloves, helmets, body armor for construction, workers, fighters, and police.
DeSimone, 55, is a former University of North Carolina professor. Talking to Forbes, DeSimone said that while building the leadership of the company, he started to think about his role at growing the business. He was thinking about the person would inherit the top role in the company. “[Investor] Bobby Long is the people person on the board. He and I talk seven times a week, and it was through that conversation that the idea emerged,” Said DeSimone.
“Bobby has a lot of ideas, often harebrained and not possible. And we pulled it off.” He added.
Printers by Carbon work with elastomers, resins and constant fluid interface printing technology. This means they can create objects with the identical kind of energy you would see in conventional thermoplastics.
They can also create flexible lattices. These objects that they print vary from vehicle parts to the mid-soles in Alphaedge and Adidas Futurecraft shoes. Machines by Carbin also print quickly as compared to other additive manufacturing systems.
Carbon is located in Redwood City. It has raised not more than $260 million in growth and venture funding. It has attained an estimate of just about $2.5 billion.
Investors have continued to pour cash into 3D-printing firms at a time when technical applications are growing. Carbon is the most valued of all the venture-backed. Some of the investors for Carbon include Baillie Gifford, Madrone Capital, GV BMW group, Sequoia Capital and others more. startups.
