Esko Honors Artios Founder Simon James

MIAMISBURG, OH—May 21, 2013—In recognition of his contribution to Esko and to the packaging industry, on Sunday, May 19, Esko honored Simon James, who is retiring. At EskoWorld 2013, the company's user conference held in Phoenix, James 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 James was born in Lusaka, Zambia, and attended the university in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1976, while employed with Notting 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, James came to the United States 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. James 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.

James was part of the team that sold Artios to Barco in 1998. After he sold his software company, he held a variety of positions with Barco and later Esko, ranging from vice president of sales in Europe, president of Esko North America and Esko senior vice president for global marketing. James 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 15,000 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,” noted 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.”

About Esko
Esko is a global supplier of integrated solutions for the packaging and labels, sign and display, commercial printing and professional publishing industries. Esko products and services drive profitability in the packaging and printing supply chain by reducing time-to-market and raising productivity.

Esko employs around 1200 people worldwide. Its direct sales and service organization covers Europe, Middle East and Africa, the Americas and the Asia Pacific, Japan and China regions and is complemented by a network of distribution partners in more than 50 countries.

Headquartered in Gent, Belgium, Esko has R&D and manufacturing facilities in five European countries, the United States, China and India. Esko is a Danaher company.

Source: Esko.