When Kodak announced on March 12^th that Orbitz Chairman Jeff Clarke would be replacing Antonio Perez as Kodak CEO, it appeared to be a surprising outcome to many of us … not so much that Kodak chose Clarke but that Clarke chose Kodak.  Although Clarke has a background in our industry, most notably as the EVP of Global Operations for HP from 2002 to 2003, he has spent nearly the last decade in the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley venture capital, including involvement in Orbitz’s successful IPO. So we were quite interested to hear what he had to say, and pleased that he chose to speak to us so early in the process.

Personally, I came away from the call very impressed with Clarke’s level of enthusiasm and energy, as well as his thoughts about the future of Kodak.  While it is still early days, he appears to already have a pretty good grasp of the issues and opportunities.  He pointed out that he spent his first three weeks in intensive operations reviews, and meetings with customers, employees and other constituents around the world, primarily listening and learning.

As to what attracted him to Kodak, Clarke said, “I have spent the last 10 years in Silicon Valley.  Kodak, in many ways, is like a start-up, creating proprietary technologies that will transform the market.  But it is also a mature organization with a great deal of heritage and resources.  That is what attracted me to Kodak.  It has a product portfolio unique in its breadth across graphic communications, packaging and functional printing based on expertise in material science, deposition, software, digital imaging and other underlying technologies.”