Velo3D, Inc. (NYSE: VLD), a leading metal additive manufacturing technology company for mission-critical parts, today announced it has appointed Brad Kreger as Executive Vice President of Operations to support the company’s goals in production growth, quality standards, and cost reduction. Kreger brings decades of experience overseeing and rapidly scaling operations in hardware production, including tenures at Thermo Fisher Scientific and its subsidiary Affymetrix, and Fluidigm Corporation. He will have oversight of Velo3D’s various manufacturing facilities and their corresponding teams, reporting to Velo3D CEO and Founder Benny Buller.
Kreger’s career has centered around early-stage companies that are scaling the manufacturing of hardware while also making improvements in quality and cost. In his former role as Senior Vice President of Global Operations at Fluidigm, he successfully led strategic initiatives to increase production of its mass cytometry technology, and improve the customer experience through operational efficiencies, enhanced infrastructure and streamlined execution.
“Running global operations at a company that is scaling as fast as Velo3D is an incredible challenge, but Brad is well suited to help us reach the next level given his extensive background working with growing companies that provide of highly sophisticated hardware,” said Buller. “I look forward to seeing Brad optimize our operations to accelerate the production our Sapphire and Sapphire XC printers, increase our manufacturing capabilities, and reach our production goals for 2023 and beyond.”
In his new role overseeing production, Kreger will lead all operations activities at Velo3D, including global logistics, manufacturing, quality, and procurement. Kreger will also be responsible for managing partnerships with key suppliers while automating planning and procurement processes.
“Velo3D is in a unique position, as its metal additive manufacturing technology is experiencing increasing demand to meet the needs of its customers,” said Kreger. “I’m thrilled to join such an innovative company that is transforming so many important industries in meaningful ways. I am confident we will be successful in increasing the production of the Sapphire family of printers and navigating the growth we’re forecasting in the coming year.”
Since shipping its first production printers in 2019, Velo3D has seen strong growth year-over-year. The company is currently ramping up the production volume of its latest Sapphire XC printer, which provides one of the biggest build volumes in the laser powder bed fusion class of metal 3D printers. In 2023, Velo3D is aiming to increase production of the Sapphire XC printer and lower costs. Scaling the company’s operations team with the hiring of Kreger will support Velo3D’s growth goals and further strengthen its position as the leader in growth within the additive manufacturing industry.
About Velo3D
Velo3D is a metal 3D printing technology company. 3D printing—also known as additive manufacturing (AM)—has a unique ability to improve the way high-value metal parts are built. However, legacy metal AM has been greatly limited in its capabilities since its invention almost 30 years ago. This has prevented the technology from being used to create the most valuable and impactful parts, restricting its use to specific niches where the limitations were acceptable.
Velo3D has overcome these limitations so engineers can design and print the parts they want. The company’s solution unlocks a wide breadth of design freedom and enables customers in space exploration, aviation, power generation, energy, and semiconductor to innovate the future in their respective industries. Using Velo3D, these customers can now build mission-critical metal parts that were previously impossible to manufacture. The end-to-end solution includes the Flow print preparation software, the Sapphire family of printers, and the Assure quality control system—all of which are powered by Velo3D’s Intelligent Fusion manufacturing process. The company delivered its first Sapphire system in 2018 and has been a strategic partner to innovators such as SpaceX, Honeywell, Honda, Chromalloy, and Lam Research. Velo3D has been named to San Francisco Chronicle’s prestigious annual list of Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022.
For more information, please visit Velo3D.com, or follow the company on LinkedIn or Twitter.
