Key senior appointments drive next phase of Xaar Group’s transformation

Print Solutions

Xaar has strengthened its capability and experience with the appointment to its senior leadership team of Sue LaVerne as chief people officer and Karl Forbes as group research and development director.

With Sue reporting to CEO, John Mills and Karl to COO, Graham Tweedale, the newly created roles will assist the company in the next phase of its transformation. They will add to the strength and experience of the wider leadership team, ensuring it delivers on its customer focused strategy.

Sue has extensive international, cross-sector HR experience, having worked for Marks and Spencer plc, E.ON and Headlam Group plc amongst others.

In her role as chief people officer, she leads group HR, and together with her team, will ensure Xaar delivers on its ambition of becoming an ‘employer of choice’, a key part of the people pillar within the group’s Sustainability Roadmap launched earlier this year.

‘Xaar already has a strong set of values and great people who are clearly passionate about its products, and I am delighted to be part of the team driving the people strategy across the group,’ said Sue. ‘We have already rolled out a number of exciting initiatives – such as our Early Careers Programme – as we invest in both our people and our community. By continuing to develop our people strategy we will cement Xaar as being both a great place to work and one where everyone can build their career.’

As group research and development director, Karl heads up a 75 strong development team, bringing together the engineering skills from across FFEI, Megnajet and Xaar’s printhead business to deliver on its development roadmap, and enable sustainable growth for both OEM and UDI customers.

He has considerable experience in the digital inkjet sector, having worked for Videojet and Inca Digital. Karl also previously worked at Xaar as a key member of the technical research and development team in the early 2000s, where he contributed to several developments including the TF Technology. Having worked for Cambridge Consultants and Sepura, his experience in driving multiple large and complex research and development programmes and leading multi-disciplinary teams has been central to the delivery of a number of new product developments and innovative technologies.

‘Xaar has led the way in inkjet technology innovation for over 30 years and the creativity and passion of our people has been central to this,’ said Karl. ‘I am very excited to be part of this fantastic team as we continue to innovate for customers and unleash the power of inkjet. By enabling the sharing of research and development best practice and technologies across the group, our team will continue to develop best in class printheads and systems to meet our customer's needs for today and tomorrow.’