Maxon (stylized MAXON) the makers of Cinema 4D, has announced senior leadership appointments as the company makes reorganizational adjustments to streamline operations and poise the company for worldwide strategic growth.
New Executive Team
The executive team changes, effective immediately, to reflect the strategic goals of David McGavran, Chief Executive Officer, for the future fo Maxon and its acclaimed 3D software, Cinema 4D.
Key Takeaways
Maxon aims to grow larger through global expansion utilizing its new CEO with decades of M&E software experience at Adobe. At the same time, the Nemetschek Group has taken over entire ownership of the German 3D software company which looks to have been a necessary step in order to invest further in Maxon. Investment looks aimed at VR and AR and the AEC industries.
“This is an exciting and transformational time in the evolution of Maxon, and I’m eager to work with our new leadership team that represents the very best talent across our offices poised to take Maxon to the next level,” stated McGavran. “With proven track records of delivering strong results, I am pleased to have these talented and passionate executives join me in streamlining operational initiatives to best serve global customers and partners, anticipate the ever-changing needs of the 3D digital landscape, and maintain Cinema 4D’s standing as a best-in-class market leader in 3D content creation.”
The new leadership lays the groundwork for making the company more agile, growth-oriented and efficient so they can focus on strategy, innovation, and superior customer experiences. For the most part, most of the Maxon executive team is already well-known within the Cinema 4D community.
Executive Team Appointments
The leadership team assuming new or expanded roles at Maxon will be directly reporting to McGavran, and include:
Philip Losch, Chief Technology Architect: Philip is one the creative forces behind Cinema 4D, which he invented back in 1989 together with his brother Christian. In his new role as Chief Technology Architect,are he will guide, direct and drive all technical aspects of development.
Oliver Meiseberg, Chief Product Officer: Oliver joined Maxon in 2011 after working for leading German broadcasters and media production houses. He has a keen understanding of the needs of artists in a post-production environment and is focused on making sure Maxon products are shaped with a customer-centric emphasis. Though he works on various areas of the business, he is ultimately responsible for all aspects of product and potential M&A activities.
Paul Babb, Head of Worldwide Marketing: In 1998, Paul founded the US office for Maxon, and introduced Cinema 4D to the North and South American markets. His strategic planning and marketing expertise widely credited for taking Cinema 4D from a virtual unknown to one of the most widely used 3D products for digital content creation and the leader in 3D motion graphics. In his new role as Head of Worldwide Marketing, he will expand his focus to serve and support the global Cinema 4D community.
Friederike Bruckert, Head of Worldwide Sales: As VP of International Sales and Marketing, Friederike has successfully expanded Maxon’s distribution chain and delivered significant year-over-year growth; including more than 20% in EMEA and Asia-Pacific. She is known for her passionate customer focus and great understanding of local markets. In her new role, Friederike is responsible for managing the company’s worldwide sales team and sales partner network.
Gesa Häfner, Head of Human Resources and Legal: Gesa joined Maxon in 2014 with more than 12 years of professional experience in the HR sector and as corporate lawyer. She is responsible for worldwide HR, legal and employee experience. Gesa is leading the staffing and hiring needs of the company through this exciting time of globalization and considerable expansion of the Maxon family.
Karsten Jancke, Director of Engineering: Karsten is passionate about and has been working in software development for over 20 years. He started his career as a part-time developer while finishing his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. He joined IBM in 2001, first as a developer and ultimately as Software Development Manager. In 2015, he joined Maxon as Director of Engineering.
Dieter Bonoff, Director of IT: Dieter began his career at Maxon in 2010 as IT-Director, responsible for technological infrastructure in Germany. He is thrilled to take on the challenge and bring his knowledge of more than 20 years to the global needs of all Maxon offices worldwide.
“I look forward to working with these talented and dedicated executives during this exciting new phase. Their wealth of experience and significant contributions to Maxon will further position us to capture even greater market opportunity,” added McGavran. “And, while these appointments represent a new global focus, we wish to assure our customers that Maxon will continue to operate as the customer-friendly company they have come to know and love.”
For more information on Cinema 4D and MAXON visit them online here.
Architosh Analysis and Commentary
As we noted in our news coverage back in August and early September, the latest Cinema 4D Release 20 adds some important support for the MCAD markets with the easy ability to bring in data from tools like SolidWorks, STEP, Catia and more. But the bigger news that we have not addressed yet is the new leadership and the new CEO at Maxon, David McGavran.
Back in July, the news broke that the Nemetschek Group had acquired the remaining 30 percent of ownership fo Maxon from the original three founders, taking ownership by Nemetschek from 70 – 100 percent. Longtime managing director Harald Egel and his co-founders were stepping down into retirement. With total control of the German software maker, the Nemetschek Group and Maxon sought out a key media and entertainment software veteran in McGavran, who comes to Maxon with 20 years at Adobe.
While the focus of Cinema 4D will be to continue to support and build in the M&E software market, the Nemetschek Group has likely long realized that the rendering technology at Maxon is under-utilized in a very fast-moving AEC visualization market, one where AR and VR are big new expanding areas. A press report from 4 July 2018 reads:
“Under its new leadership, MAXON will further strengthen its position in current markets and concentrate especially on the areas of augmented reality and virtual reality, the major growth driver of the industry.”
With projected spending of over EUR 3 billion in M&E and EUR 500 million in AEC visualization by 2020, the prospects for Cinema 4D and its core technology are very strong. A tweet by US Maxon president who is now worldwide marketing chief back in July said that the key takeaway was that now with 100 percent ownership it is easier for Nemetschek to invest in Maxon. This suggests that Nemetschek may have been looking for further investment in visualization software companies that were already further along in VR and AR. There were plenty of smaller investment targets, and not-so-small investment targets, (like Abvent) that the Nemetschek Group could have or may have approached. It seems that the decision was made to leverage what they had in Cinema 4D.
“In the market for visualization in the media and AEC industries, we see great potential for growth and want to make stronger use of this,” said Patrik Heider, CFOO of the Nemetschek Group. This is indeed the case where already its two flagship sister companies in the AEC space—ARCHICAD and Vectorworks Architect—utilize the Cinema 4D engine in their photorealistic rendering capabilities.
But to a larger point. More alignment between the Nemetschek Group companies is an obvious strategy that seems to be rolling slowly out of the Germany-based holding company. We can see it with the Bluebeam integrations, Solibri and other integrations starting to emerge more forcefully between the sister companies. On another note. We could even see workflow integrations between Adobe tools and Cinema 4D grow as well.
Reader Comments
Comments for this story are closed