Newly created executive role to strengthen company’s strategic approach in driving long-term success
CALGARY, Alberta --- July 14, 2008 --- SMART Technologies announces the appointment of Bill Ciprick to the newly created position of vice president, strategy and alliances. Ciprick’s mandate is the development of sustainable competitive advantage through the development of long-term strategies and relationships with third-party companies to continue to expand SMART’s offerings and activities. He is based in Calgary, Canada, and reports to SMART’s CEO, Nancy Knowlton.
Ciprick brings extensive international business experience to SMART. He is a 17-year veteran with the largest consumer packaged-goods company in the world where he held positions of increasing responsibility, including over six years at the executive level. His most recent role was vice president, sales for one of the company’s divisions. His work experience has included licensing and acquisitions, marketing, sales and leading large partnerships and alliances. His strong business skills have been honed through increasingly responsible and challenging assignments. Ciprick is experienced in developing high-performing teams and leading complex and difficult business redesigns. He holds a bachelor degree in economics.
“SMART has enjoyed impressive growth over its 21-year history and is positioned for continued growth across all markets,” says Ciprick. “It’s an exciting time for SMART and I’m looking forward to the challenge of developing long-term strategies and supportive alliances for continued success.”
“This executive appointment focuses on strategies and alliances to strongly position SMART to extend our product and services offerings well into the future,” says SMART’s CEO, Nancy Knowlton. “Bill brings a high energy level coupled with demonstrated strong management capabilities to this newly-created role, and we look forward to the significant contribution he will make to our company.”
SMART’s global position and recent executive appointments
SMART’s innovation and product development history spans over 20 years, beginning with the introduction of the world’s first interactive whiteboard in 1991. Since then, more than 800,000 SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards have been installed in classrooms, meeting rooms and training rooms around the world. SMART has built a leadership position globally in providing products that encourage and support collaboration, with sales in over 100 countries worldwide. In 2006, the company surpassed CDN$1 billion in cumulative sales and has sustained a cumulative annual growth rate of 30 percent over 5 years and 42 percent over 10 years. On the basis of 2007 revenues, SMART would be ranked as one of Canada’s top 20 technology companies. The company continues to hold strong global leadership of the interactive whiteboard product category with a 56.8 percent category share for the first quarter of 2008, more than three times the share of the next largest competitor. The data comes from a recently released report from Decision Tree Consulting (DTC), an industry-leading global research company that has tracked interactive whiteboard sales for eight years.
SMART has bolstered its executive team with a number of recent appointments, many of which are newly created positions. Recent executive appointments include vice president and general manager, EMEA (June 2008); vice president, people services (August 2007); vice president, operations (August 2007); vice president, marketing (April 2007), vice president, North American sales (February 2007) and president and COO (January 2007). Other appointments are pending.
