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Executive Q&A: John Mills, CEO of Xaar

John Mills, CEO of Xaar, talks about the company’s rebranding strategy, the new ImagineX printhead platform, and the “new Xaar.”

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

John Mills became CEO of printhead manufacturer Xaar in 2019 after five years as CEO of Inca Digital. After a year or so of under-the-radar R&D and business planning, Xaar is now in the process of reinventing and rebranding itself, as well as launching the new ImagineX platform which the company hopes will power Xaar products for the next 30 years. I spoke to John Mills about the new strategy, the new platform, and the “new Xaar.”

WhatTheyThink: We had last met at FESPA Berlin in 2018 when you were still at Inca Digital. What subsequently attracted you to Xaar?

John Mills: Xaar is actually about four miles from Inca [in Cambridge, UK] and during my time at Inca Digital, we never bought a Xaar printhead. We were very aware of the fundamental benefits of Xaar printheads, but there were things in the technology which stopped us from using them. So when I came in [to Xaar], the opportunity was, what if we could actually fix the reasons why I wouldn’t have bought a Xaar printhead but retain all of the stuff that wouldmake me buy a Xaar printhead? It’s really been the opportunity to do that.


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About Richard Romano

Richard Romano is Managing Editor of WhatTheyThink.  He curates the Wide Format section on WhatTheyThink.com. He has been writing about the graphic communications industry for more than 25 years. He is the author or coauthor of more than half a dozen books on printing technology and business. His most recent book is “Beyond Paper: An Interactive Guide to Wide-Format and Specialty Printing.

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