Morgan was senior vice-president and chief marketing officer at 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys from November 2014 to June this year and before that spent 25 years at HP where he held a number of senior roles, most recently senior vice-president of HP's worldwide Graphics Solutions business.

Morgan will join the Cambridge-headquartered inkjet developer as non-executive director from 4 January. He will also serve as a member of the audit, nomination and remuneration committees.

Xaar chief executive Doug Edwards, who joined from Kodak at the beginning of the year, said the company was looking forward to getting Morgan on board.

"He clearly has the right background we were looking for, international experience and strong sector knowledge," he said, adding that these would aid Xaar's growth in new and emerging applications for digital inkjet printing.

He said Xaar would tap into Morgan's knowledge of the printed packaging market, an area the company is targeting. Speaking to PrintWeek in September he said direct-to-shape printing could be "huge" for the company.

He will also be involved in Xaar's 3D printing interests. The company is currently part of the Factum Consortium, a government-funded initiative, working alongside Sheffield and Loughborough Universities, British Aerospace and Unilever.  

Edwards also said Morgan's inkjet experience and relationships would help Xaar grow its presence in the US.

"We only have about 5% of our business in the Americas, which for me is pretty pathetic," he said. "We want to get into the Americas and I think we can do that. We both have a lot of relationships there and I think we can move that business on."

With a background in global marketing and general management during his 25 years at HP, Morgan, who was recruited after a full executive search, had end-to-end global general management responsibility for HP's multibillion-dollar portfolio of digital printing and packaging press, signage and display, large-format design, 3D, and specialty printing solutions and services at HP. 

He also spent 11 years based in Asia, where Xaar currently earns some 40% of its revenue and where he led strategic investments in key growth markets.

At Stratasys he had responsibility for global marketing, developing strategy and building a global team to support the company's expansion.

Morgan was also involved in a number of mergers and acquisitions at both the strategic and operational levels and was a board member for an HP-Softbank PC-related joint venture in Japan.

In a statement released this morning, Xaar chairman Phil Lawler said Morgan “brings a wealth of experience with him in both global businesses and leadership roles.

“We look forward to his help in guiding the company at this important period in Xaar's 25-year history." 

Meanwhile chief customer officer Richard Barham, has resigned from the board with immediate effect. He is not expected to be replaced.

The company said it was “realigning the business to support our long-term commercial vision and support our partnership strategy”.

Edwards thanked Barham for his work at Xaar and wished him future success.

2015 has been Xaar’s 25th year in business and turnover is now around £100m. It employs some 650 staff worldwide. 

Xaar's focus remains on maintaining its hold on the ceramics printing market and growing its influence in packaging. 

Edwards added that work on Xaar's 'P4' Thin Film acqueous printhead technology was on track, with the first heads due to be shown at Drupa next year.

"We're interested to engage with at least two OEMs going into Drupa," he added.