Industry digital inkjet leader Scott Schinlever has re-joined Electronics For Imaging in a new role as chief operating officer for EFI’s global inkjet business. Schinlever, who starts in his new position today, has been charged with further expanding EFI’s market-leading industrial inkjet portfolio, while facilitating the analogue-to-digital transformation throughout the industry for EFI’s current and future customers. Schinlever will be responsible for all equipment, ink, and service solutions throughout the EFI portfolio in Display Graphics, Textiles, Packaging and Building Materials.

“It feels great to be back at EFI,” Schinlever said. “In the two years that I have been away, much has changed, but the spirit of innovation and the strong desire to make our customers successful has remained strong and is increasing every day. I look forward to digging in, getting caught up, and working to take our inkjet businesses to a new and even more successful future.”

 Schinlever, who most recently was president and COO of Automation Solutions for Gerber Technology, had a long career managing the marketing, growth and development of EFI VUTEk printers and other EFI inkjet technologies. He joined the digital print industry in the late 1990s, working with the Xerox Office Systems Group. In 2001, he took on a marketing position at the pioneering superwide-format printer manufacturer VUTEk, a company EFI acquired in 2005. Schinlever continued to rise through the ranks at EFI following that acquisition, becoming senior vice president and general manager for EFI Inkjet Solutions – the company’s largest business unit – before joining Gerber Technology in 2018.

“We are thrilled to have Scott back in the EFI family,” said EFI Chairman and CEO Jeff Jacobson. “Our industry is at a critical inflection point. I joined EFI one year ago because I clearly understood that EFI is the best positioned company in the industry to drive the analogue-to-digital transformation in the industrial inkjet space. Under Scott’s leadership of the Inkjet Business, I am convinced that EFI will attain that leadership position across the diverse segments of display graphics, packaging, textiles and building materials.

“Scott has an innate understanding of and expertise in the portfolio and solution set that will enable our customers to excel as the industry quickly migrates to industrial inkjet,” Jacobson added. “We are confident he will lead our global industrial inkjet operations to the next level in his new Inkjet COO role.”

Driving growth in digital print

During Schinlever’s previous time with the company, EFI’s inkjet business grew significantly through organic growth and strategic acquisitions of innovative digital printer and ink companies. He expanded EFI’s successful move into ink manufacturing, leveraging EFI’s 2006 acquisition of digital ink and printer technologies from Flint Ink. That purchase set the stage for EFI’s position in high-quality, production-class UV LED inkjet superwide-format printers and ink. The business was further strengthened with the acquisition of Matan, bringing strong systems technology to EFI. Overall, EFI’s revenues for its superwide-format inkjet products more than doubled under Schinlever, with increased profitability.

Schinlever not only expanded the company’s strengths and presence in superwide-format display graphics printing, he also helped manage the company’s strategic industrial project to develop the packaging market’s leading single-pass inkjet corrugated board printer – the EFI Nozomi C18000. He also helped spearhead acquisitions of EFI Reggiani, a leading developer of industrial textile printers, and EFI Cretaprint – a digital ceramic tile printer market share leader with a strong position in the ceramics industry’s most competitive geographies, including India and China.

Schinlever, who works from EFI’s Londonderry, N.H., facility, has an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in managerial economics from the University of California, Davis.