ExScite

Arnon Dror

Arnon Dror has been appointed VP CFO and Treasurer at Presstek in New Hampshire.
Most recently the ExScite Arnon served as Director of Worldwide Channel Management for Eastman Kodak Company and has held several other executive level operations positions at Kodak. He previously served as Vice President-Finance for Creo, Inc

Presstek, Inc. is a supplier of digital offset printing solutions to the printing and communications industries. Presstek’s DI digital offset solutions bridge the gap between toner and conventional offset printing, enabling printers to cost effectively meet increasing customer demand for high quality, short run color printing with a fast turnaround time while providing improved profit margins. The Company’s CTP portfolio ranges from two-page to eight-page systems, many of which are fully automated. These systems support Presstek’s line of chemistry-free plates as well as Aeon, a no preheat thermal plate which offers run lengths up to one million impressions. www.presstek.com.

Kodak (owner of the Scitex Graphic Arts)- in Chapter 11

On January 19, 2012,

Eastman Kodak Company and its U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 business reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The business reorganization will enable Kodak to bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities, and enable the Company to focus on its most valuable business lines.
See formal press realease here: http://www.kodaktransforms.com

Kodak[Scitex] in Petach Tikva

Scitex, errrr- Kodak new location

To those of you interested in how Scitex of today (errrr… Kodak, Israel) looks like, here is a picture of the main space.
Zohar reports that there is no real manufacturing at Kodak, Israel- all the work is done by overseas subcontractors.
The picture (summer 2011) was sent by Zohar.

Steve Jobs and his effect on Scitex

The ExScite community mourn the passing of a genius- Steve Jobs of Apple.

Apple has been the platform of choice in the graphic arts industry. As we all recall, Scitex has not diverted its skills and software innovation to the Mac platform, which quickly spelled the end for its workstation business.

One group at Scitex was trying hard to port the Scitex ingenuity into the Mac, under the leadership of Eli Israeli .
Ken Hurtubise was the application/marketing power behind the Scitex Visionary, and he posted this at ExScite members’ board:

“I had the opportunity to meet Steve Jobs a couple of times while I was at Scitex. His death reminded me of some of the “insanely great” products the Scitex team created with the Macintosh.

For those of you involved in the Visionary and VIP projects, here is some trivia you might be unaware of or forgotten:

– Scitex was the first company to attach a color printer and color scanner to a Macintosh. Even beating Apple’s own internal developments.

– For a time Scitex bought more high end Macs than any other company in the world.

– Color Macs from Apple started out being priced the same as a Sun workstation in Europe. We pushed them to have a more rational international pricing policy.

– At product launch, we sold 13 Visionary Beta sites for $80,000 cash up-front. That was important since Scitex was having cash flow issues.

– We wouldn’t tell anyone the price until the end of the introduction. One customer, who had to leave before the presentation was over, left us with a blank check and told us to fill it in and tell him the amount at the end of the day.

– With Quark, we created what became the concept of “extensions”. We taught Quark how to do quality text processing and they taught us how do some things in color on the desktop.

– I first offered Paul Brainerd (the president of Aldus, maker of PageMaker) the ability to work with Scitex on the Visionary concept. He turned me down, saying that they wanted to focus on the B&W office market instead. Years later he admitted to me that it might not have been the best decision he ever made.

– The original agreement between Scitex and Quark was a handshake agreement and a letter of understanding, handwritten on the front and back of piece of notebook paper at a Seybold conference.

– Adobe never wanted to do a software rip on the Mac. They only agreed to do it after we ported the Pipeline Technologies interpreter to the Mac and demoed it at a trade show”.

meeting at GraphExpo

Among the many ExScite’s seen at a recent GraphExpo show, we could get these four to pose for the camera and take a picture of (from left to right):

Aharon Nizani , Eitan Varon, Rick Littrel, Moshe Keydar

ExScite friend meet Aug 2011

Last June a group of ExScitex friends got together at Renee and Hohey Salzman’s home to honor the memory of Yvonne Sanua. In a very touching meeting, Yvonne was warmly remembered by all who knew her or worked with her in Scitex Europe.

In the picture, from left to right:
Rami Liron, Eva Duvdevani, Jacob Rothschild, Shula Rothschild, Doron Neev, Avi Rabi, Mendi Szabo, Betti Szabo and Hohey Salzman. Missing from the picture – among many others who came – Itzik Sanua.

ExScite’ment @ APM

Israeli volume measurement innovator APM (APM Automation Solutions Ltd.) -home to several Scitex veterans

APM’s patented level and volume measurement technology is being applied to a broad spectrum of industries – food and beverages, power, plastics, chemicals, aggregates and cement, metals – where effective production management, process and inventory control are important bottom-line considerations. Scitex veterans
hold key management positions with the company, including Uzi Ish-Hurwitz who has been the firm’s active Chairman from the very beginning, CFO Yossi Rahima and Executive Sales Director EMEA Mordi Perl.
Founded in 2005 by Mordi’s son, APM CEO Ofir Perl and CTO Yossi Zlotnick, the company introduced its flagship product, the 3DLevelScanner?, in 2007. This milestone represented a new approach to accurately measuring the
volume of bulk solid materials stored inside silos, open bins and large warehouses while providing 3D mapping of the surface of the contents. APM’s offerings include inventory-savings solutions for a range of industrial applications across multiple sites that meet the needs of corporate as well production managers. APM products are sold and supported by a network of distributors in Europe, the United States, Asia Pacific and elsewhere.

Other connections to Scitex include Board member Eli Davidai, APM’s Regional Sales Manager Adi Goldman (son of Scitex’s Yaron Goldman), and consultants Dan Zetland (marcom services), Dana Kontes (human resources) and Shelagh
Hammer (marketing). APM’s VP Business Development Eyal Cohen worked part-time at Scitex while he was a student, and Scitex vet Israel Amir managed the mechanical design team at ARAN for the first model of the 3DLevelScanner.
In the picture (from left to right): Yossi Rahima, Eli Davidai, Uzi Ish-Hurwitz, Ofir Perl, and Mordi Perl.

Yvonne Bourke passed away

We have received this message from Vincent Bourke, the brother of Yvonne Bourke (married Sanua, but divorced in 2006) .

It is with great sadness I have to inform you that Yvonne Bourke passed away last March 28th.

Yvonne had just turned 50 and leaves two daughters, Jasmin (17) and Amy (16).

She worked many years for Scitex in Brussels back in the late 70’s and 80’s (as also my two other sisters Lorna and Fiona, but for shorter periods). Yvonne lived in Belgium most of her life, in London (Scitex office) for a few years, in Paris and then moved to Germany for ten years before relocating to Israel.

Yvonne knew quite a few people from Scitex and remained in contact with several. We (the siblings) have located whoever we remembered but it is highly probable we forgot some or are not aware of other people Yvonne may have known.

Jeff Hurley pass away

We have received this sad not from the ExScite Ray Fair:

It is with great sadness and regret that I inform you of Jeff Hurley’s passing on May 17 in Littleton, CO.

Jeff was one of the original Application Engineers at Scitex America working out of the Bedford MA office. I had the privilege of working with Jeff at many printing sites and trade shows. He was truly one of a kind. RIP Jeff, RIP.

Jeff is survived by wife Lucie, daughter Sarah, son Kristopher, mother Marilyn, brother Michael and 2 grandchildren.

Yossi_Rahima

Rahima

The ExScite Yossi Rahima is APM Automation’s CFO.
Prior to APM he was the CFO of Zend Technologies, Xmpie , M.C.M. Environmental Technologies, and Ornet. Consultant to Clal Industries, Indigo, Aurec Group, Strauss Elite Group, NeuroVision and Light Instruments Ltd.
During Yossi’s 5 years at Scitex, he was the head of Business Planning & Reporting group.

APM Chairman of the board is our own ExScite- Uzi Ish-Hurwitz.

The Tel Aviv based APM Solutions http://apm-solutions.com/ is a manufacturer and expert in level and volume measurement instrumentation. Its flagship product, the 3DLevelScanner, represents a new family of devices that takes the guesswork out of measuring the level, volume and mass of materials stored inside a silo or open bin.
The 3DLevel Scanner employs an array of three antennas to transmit low frequency pulses and to receive echoes of the pulses from the contents of the silo, bin or other container. Using three antennas the unit measures not only the time/distance of each echo but also its direction. The device’s Digital Signal Processor samples and analyzes the received signals to provide very accurate measurements of the level, volume and mass of the stored contents and generates a 3D representation of actual allocation of product within the container for display on remote computer screens