Well, that certainly didn’t take long: Frank Marangell has been hired by BigRep.
Marangell was most recently the CEO of interesting 3D print startup Rize, and prior to that was President of Objet before it was absorbed by giant Stratasys. Marangell stayed with Stratasys for a year after the merger, but then moved on to Rize.
What is Marangell doing at BigRep? He’s now in charge of US operations, which provides us a very strong signal that BigRep will be dramatically expanding their business in that country. BigRep originates from Berlin, Germany, where they now operate a worldwide business. However, the USA is still the largest 3D printing market in the world today, and it is clear they wish to provide more emphasis there.
From our previous chats with Marangell, it’s pretty clear he’s an excellent candidate for this role, as he has significant experience setting and managing up reseller organizations, particularly in the USA. This should enable BigRep to reach plenty more customers and prospects, adding to their growing presence in large format 3D printing.
If that wasn’t a big enough job, it appears Marangell will be doing additional work:
Besides leading the USA operations Frank will also become part of the global executive team
as Executive Vice President and support global sales in the European and Asian operations
of BigRep.
I am getting the impression BigRep intends on leveraging his expertise for their entire sales network.
There are two thoughts from this: it seems that BigRep’s most recent investment round is being used to develop a very extensive – and worldwide – selling network. This means they have confidence that their product can indeed be sold to a much wider audience.
From this I take it that they believe the notion of large format 3D printing, BigRep’s speciality with their 1m sized 3D printers, is applicable to a great many industries. Previously we saw one of their case studies in which a marine company used their technology to 3D print a propellor prototype in record time and expense. There must be countless companies producing meter-sized products that might benefit from large format 3D printing.
The key for BigRep will be convincing these companies, who could often be smaller and not as in touch with current technologies as one might like, that 3D printing is something they should adopt. This is a challenge for all industrial 3D printer companies, but apparently BigRep has the confidence they can pull it off.
Via BigRep (PDF)
