Global Inkjet Systems Executive Team
Nick Geddes
Senior Chief Technical Officer
Nick is the co-founder and majority shareholder of GIS. A Computer Science graduate from St John’s College Cambridge, Nick founded GIS in late 2006 after a successful investment banking career at UBS.
Being Senior CTO across the whole Nano Dimension group, Nick drives innovation and leads the ever-growing R&D teams. Nick wrote the GIS variable data RIP, the original curved surface compensation tool and is now working on the latest generation of inkjet image quality enhancement software.
Debbie Thorp
Business Development Director
Debbie Thorp has worked in digital printing for over 30 years and joined GIS in 2010 to build the international customer base, and establish strong teams for account management, technical support and marketing.
Earlier in her career, Debbie worked for over 10 years in senior positions at specialist digital printing consultancy companies such as IT Strategies, and was Head of Group Marketing at inkjet printhead manufacturer Xaar for 4 years. Before joining GIS, she was VP EMEA Operations at iTi, an inkjet system integrator.
Debbie is a Board member of ESMA (European Specialist Printing Manufacturers Association) and served as Chair from 2018-2020. She presents regularly at industry conferences worldwide – and was elected to the ASDPT (Academy of Screen and Digital Printing Technologies) in 2017.
Debbie has a BA degree in Modern Languages from Manchester University and an MBA from Durham University Business School.
Martin Hoather
Chief Operating Officer
Martin has a wealth of operational and strategic experience stemming from a 21-year career as a Royal Navy Engineer Officer. Highlights of this varied period include several seagoing deployments, a period integrated with the Ministry of Defence’s R&D organisation, DSTL, and selection for the Private Office of the Chief of Defence Staff – the professional head of the British Armed Forces.
Martin joined GIS in 2014 as the Company’s R&D Programme Manager, and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2017. He is a Chartered Engineer, holds Master’s degrees in Engineering from Cambridge and Cranfield Universities, and is an alumnus of Manchester Business School. He sits on the Regional Advisory Board of Make UK, the Engineering Employers’ Federation.
Dr Steve Jeffels
Chief Financial Officer
A Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor, Steve has an MA in Engineering from Cambridge University and an MBA. Prior to joining GIS, Steve worked for two of the ‘Big 4’, including training in audit with Arthur Andersen, and has had many years of experience across a wide range of company sizes ranging from the world’s largest multinationals to private and private equity owned SMEs, as well as an extensive background in tax and accounting software and ERP systems. Steve’s career encompasses both traditional accounting and finance roles along with significant tax, corporate finance, and commercial leadership positions.
Steve Williamson
General Manager / CEO
With a BEng Electronic Engineering Honours Degree, Steve has over 25 years of related, highly technical experience in RF design and manufacturing, team leadership and project management; this includes strategic, senior roles at companies in the Cambridge area such as CRFS, Cambridge Consultants, Anritsu and Plextek.
His manufacturing knowledge is diverse, ranging between one offs for specialist military / government applications to high volume production for general commercial applications. His passion for electronic design has informed design involvement throughout his career.
As General Manager / CEO, Steve has a vision to help accelerate product development for next generation industrial printing systems, leading to further growth and customer success.
Laura Able
Customer Success Director
Laura Able is Customer Success Director at Global Inkjet Systems (GIS), having joined the company in 2017 in the position of Head of Customer Experience.
This followed 11 years as Global Customer Experience Manager at Domino Printing Sciences. At Domino, Laura was responsible for the customer experience strategy, driving a customer-first approach to business processes across their global sales and manufacturing sites.
Her passion for operational excellence is nearly as strong as the passion for exceeding customer expectation, and her ongoing ambition is for every customer interaction with GIS to be a positive one.
Simon Edwards
Product Champion
Simon Edwards is Product Champion for Global Inkjet Systems (GIS).
Simon joined GIS in 2018 with a remit as Business Manager and Product Manager of Software. He has worked in digital printing for over 25 years, the optics industry for over 30 years and has a degree in Astrophysics and Applied Mathematics. Simon has held positions of Technical Director and Vice President at SOLA Optics, MD of Research Laboratories of Australia, and Vice President at Tonejet and The Technology Partnership.
