3D specialist Carbon hires former DuPont CEO Kullman as new leader

Silicon Valley 3D printing startup Carbon has named former DuPont Co. CEO Ellen Kullman as its president and CEO.

She succeeds Carbon founder Joseph DeSimone who was named chairman, Carbon announced Nov. 21.

Kullman will also remain on Carbon's board, where she has served since 2016.

Carbon has been strengthening its leadership bench over the past several months to support the growth of the business.

As president and CEO, Kullman will lead the development and execution of short- and long-term strategies, while DeSimone is transitioning into the role of executive chairman to focus on growing mainstream adoption of the Carbon Digital Manufacturing Platform and "evangelizing" the company's vision to customers, partners, and the public.

"Joe [DeSimone] has built Carbon into the world's leading digital manufacturing platform, and as president and CEO of Carbon, I am excited to partner with Joe and build on the solid foundations he's put into place," Kullman said.

DeSimone said Kullman was "the right person to lead Carbon today" with her broad experience across multiple businesses, cycles, and geographies.

"Her vision, outstanding leadership traits and distinguished track record will continue to drive Carbon's growth into the future," he said.

Prior to joining DuPont in 1988, Kullman worked for Westinghouse and General Electric. DuPont's board elected Kullman president and a director of the company in October 2008 and CEO in January 2009, making her the first woman to lead the company in its 212-year history.

She led DuPont until 2015.

Kullman is co-chair of the Paradigm for Parity coalition and a board member of United Technologies, Dell Technologies, Amgen and Goldman Sachs. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and past president of the U.S. China Business Council.

Co-founded by DeSimone in 2013, Redwood City, Calif.-based Carbon has developed a proprietary continuous liquid interfaced production (CLIP) manufacturing technology, which has been used to produce high-profile trip parts for car makers.

Key investors in the company are GE Ventures, BMW, Nikon, Arkema SA and fine chemicals company JSR Corp.

Before founding Carbon in 2013, DeSimone was a professor at the University of North Carolina for more than 20 years.