Earlier this month, Presstek announced that Jeffrey A. Beck had joined the company as its new CEO. Presstek was taken private by private equity firm AIP in 2012.  Since that time, the company has been relatively quiet on the PR front as AIP worked through a restructuring process.  Senior Editor Cary Sherburne visited with Beck, who joined the company on May 1^st, to learn more about his background and Presstek’s strategies for future success.

WTT:  Jeff, let’s start by having you share with us a bit about your background.

JAB:  I am an engineer by degree and also have an MBA, so I have a technology background with business education layered on top.  I have spent most of my career in well-established, industrial manufacturing Fortune 500 companies including Emerson, Danaher and Ametek, in engineering, sales and operations roles, and then later, general management. I ran businesses that were involved in factory automation, energy management, aerospace and defense, power conversion equipment, and instruments that we sold to the power grid operators.  Recently I spent five years at iRobot, first as division president of the consumer products business and then as COO of the corporation.  My primary mission at iRobot was to lead a turnaround.  The business had grown very rapidly but was unable to deliver the profits that investors demanded.  It needed a better balance between sales growth and construction of robust and scalable business processes.  My mission was basically to implement proven best practice business techniques at a young high tech robotics enterprise.  We proved over those five years that rapid growth and innovation can in fact be synchronized with great business practices to create an economic success.