Artios founder´s career celebrated at Esko User Group conference 

Miamisburg, OH – On Sunday, May 19, Esko honored Simon James for his contribution to Esko and to the packaging industry. At EskoWorld 2013, the company’s user conference held in Phoenix (AZ), Simon was given a warm welcome and standing ovation by the hundreds of Esko users and representatives present during the conference opening session.

Simon James career overview

Simon was born in Lusaka, Zambia and attended the university in Cape Town, South Africa.  In 1976, while employed with Notting Ltd. in England, he headed a team that designed and wrote a CAD/CAM product to design folding cartons and associated tooling.  This product was chosen by the Paperboard Packaging Council as one of the Major Technological Innovations of 1978.

As one of the founders of ArtiosCAD, Simon came to the US in 1978 as the President of Lasercomb America. In that role, he was responsible for growing both the software division and manufacturing division to a global presence, creating a company with subsidiaries in the UK, South Africa and Australia. Simon spun off the manufacturing group to companies in various countries to focus on his software company, Artios, which introduced the industry’s most successful structural packaging design software, ArtiosCAD.

Simon was part of the team that sold Artios to Barco in 1998. After he sold his software company, Simon held a variety of positions with Barco and later Esko, ranging from VP Sales Europe, President Esko North America and Esko Senior VP, Global Marketing. Simon retired from Esko earlier this year.

In 2000, he was named one of the ‘Fifty Most Influential Packaging Leaders of the 20th Century’ by Boxboard Containers International.

15 years of ArtiosCAD

In 2013 the software Simon James helped to create celebrates its 15th anniversary. ArtiosCAD has become the world’s most popular structural design software for various types of packaging and displays, and the tooling required to produce that packaging. Today, the software enjoys a leading market share and is used by over 15 thousand packaging professionals worldwide, ranging from the largest packaging manufacturing groups to smaller design agencies. The software is fully integrated in multiple other applications, including products used to design the graphics that decorate packaging. 

“For many years Simon has been instrumental in the growth and strategic development of Esko, and the company has very much to thank him for,” notes Carsten Knudsen, Esko CEO and President. “Also his influence in the packaging industry cannot be underestimated. We are grateful that we had the honor to work with Simon, and will miss his unique insights and warm friendship.”