As California-based metal additive manufacturing (AM) leader VELO3D continues on its accelerated growth path, the company has announced the appointment of Jon Porter to head its commercial operations in Europe. Based in the U.K., Porter will oversee VELO3D’s ongoing expansion efforts into this key strategic region. 

Porter comes to VELO3D from Renishaw, where he worked in the business development team of the AM division. While there he was also directly involved with the international organizations (SAE, ASTM and BSI) that are developing new standards for the industrial 3D-printing sector. 

Porter’s earliest introduction to AM came in the 1990s working for renowned engineer-entrepreneur James Dyson. As the company grew from successful startup to leading floorcare and appliance business, Porter became involved in its early investment in AM technology. “I saw the potential for AM as a ‘bridge to manufacturing’ that allows for significant time compression and de-risking of both product development and the toolmaking cycle,” he says. “Throughout my experience with several other companies as AM has evolved since then, the value of 3D printing as a powerful end-product manufacturing process has become increasingly clear.” 

VELO3D founder and CEO Benny Buller views Porter’s appointment as an opportunity to better support existing customers throughout Europe while educating others about the growth-making potential of VELO3D’s AM technology. “With Jon at the helm of our European base of operations, manufacturers in the region now have similar-time-zone access to someone who knows AM inside and out—and who has also experienced, first-hand, how adopting this technology can make all the difference in a company’s ability to innovate and compete,” he says. 

Jon Porter holds a degree in engineering product design from South Bank University in London.