What happened?
3D Systems Corporation's (DDD +0.20%) chief operating officer and chief marketing officer resigned on Tuesday, according to an SEC filing. The 3D printing company and Mark Wright "agreed" that Wright would resign from his positions as executive vice president and COO, effective as of the close of business on June 17, according to the Form 8-K. The language read similarly for Cathy Lewis, currently executive vice president and CMO, though Lewis' last day is June 10.
The filing stated that no new compensatory or severance arrangements have been entered into in connection with either executive's departure.
Wright has been COO of 3D Systems since October 2014. Previously, he was employed at EMC Corp. for over 18 years, serving as COO of the company's flash product division, senior vice president of operations, and most recently senior vice present of business development and operations, according to his bio on 3D Systems' website.
Lewis joined 3D Systems in October 2009. She's been CMO and an executive vice president since October 2014, and previously served as vice president of global marketing, according to Bloomberg. Prior to 3D Systems, Lewis was CEO of Desktop Factory, a short-lived desktop 3D printer start-up, following a two-decade career in 2D printing, where she held several VP-level positions at Xerox and a senior VP-level marketing position at Ikon Office Solutions.
Does it matter?
It remains to be seen how much these moves will matter for 3D Systems, which has been particularly struggling to grow revenue since the start of 2015 amid a widespread slowdown in buying among enterprise customers.
Shakeups among top executives when a new CEO comes on board are common, as the new leader often wants to choose his or her own top team. Given these resignations were announced on the same day, investors can probably assume that both execs were forced out by CEO Vyomesh Joshi. In April, Joshi, a longtime top HP Inc. (formerly Hewlett-Packard) 2D-printing exec, took the helm of 3D Systems, which had been operating without a permanent CEO since the departure of Avi Reichental in October.
For the short term, at least, 3D Systems should conserve some money -- especially welcome for a company that has a negative cash flow -- since no successors were announced to fill the COO and CMO slots. These top positions, however, will almost certainly eventually be filled; it should be interesting to see if Joshi brings on board any former or current HP Inc. execs.
The major personnel changes at 3D Systems and Stratasys -- which announced last week that David Reis was stepping down as CEO and was being replaced by board member Ilan Levin effective July 1 -- are surely meant to strengthen the old-guard 3D printing companies as they prepare to battle with new entrant HP and start-up Carbon.
