Rae had worked at Heidelberg for more than 20 years, first in the UK and then at its Heidelberg Americas operation where he was vice president of equipment sales and marketing.

Having pioneered a philosophy around customer centricity and business benefits while in the US, he returned to Europe and took up the new corporate position of head of marketing last year, with a worldwide remit to ramp up that approach.

However, Rae said that his vision of how the business benefits to customers would be delivered “wasn’t aligned with others in the organisation”.

He left Heidelberg last month and is now pursuing other opportunities in the industry.  

“It was a joy working at Heidelberg. The people, the atmosphere, and the technological leadership. I wouldn’t have changed that experience for the world,” Rae said.

He said he now planned to look into “some very interesting options” that had come his way since returning to the UK last summer.

Prior to joining Heidelberg UK in 1996 as product manager for its DI presses and pre-press, Rae worked at Rexam Digital Imaging and was general manager there when it installed the first two Indigo E-Prints in Europe.

He added that he hoped that his diverse industry experience would enable him to move in “many potential directions”.