Ping Fu, author of Bend, Not Break, founder and CEO of Geomagic, and incoming chief strategy officer at 3D Systems (DDD 15.48%) , tells of her journey from being a penniless newcomer to the United States, to an incredibly successful CEO.

The following transcript is lightly edited.

Brendan Byrnes: So this movement, two big players, 3D Systems and Stratasys. How do you see the competitive landscape playing out? Is there room for more players than these two? Do you see further consolidation in the industry?

Ping: There are three big players now, and a lot of newcomers. 3D Systems focuses on content to print, and Stratasys and Objet are great with innovations and machines and materials, and EOS is absolutely fabulous in machining metal. They even create structure of metals such that you can use traditional metals to create new materials. All three of them are doing similar things, but they have their focus on excellence. And now you have little companies coming up ... and the more the better. This is going to be huge, and there are going to be a lot of newcomers and increasing competitiveness, which is good for the market.

So as I'm so fortunate to be the strategic officer for 3D Systems, not only is my responsibility for the company, but it's also for the entire industry, and that's what is really exciting.