Chris Schowalter brings more than two decades of industry experience to his new role. 

He was most recently global sales director for large format and speciality production at Fiery. Prior to that he spent more than nine years at former Fiery owner EFI in a variety of marketing and product management roles.

His earlier industry career was spent at GMG, where he rose to become director of business development at GMG Americas.

Durst said Schowalter’s experience working in the US and in Europe gave him a comprehensive understanding of global business and the resulting opportunities for the group.

Michael Deflorian, business unit manager at Durst Software & Solutions commented: “We are thrilled to welcome Chris Schowalter to the Durst team.

“His expertise and vision will be invaluable as we continue to innovate and expand our software solutions worldwide.”

Schowalter will be with the Durst team at this week’s Printing United show in Las Vegas.

He said: “Durst not only delivers the highest quality printer hardware, but truly provides customers with an end-to-end solution that leverages software to increase productivity and reduce touch points is impressive to say the least.”

He said he was honoured to join the Durst team “and share my 25 years of software and color expertise to help our customers boost productivity and increase process efficiency through advanced software solutions”.

Christian Harder, VP of sales at Durst Group, said the firm recognised that customers were looking to automate production processes to reduce operational costs, alongside their hardware investments.

“With our comprehensive 360-degree offering, we provide a complete solution that gives us a clear competitive advantage,” he stated.