Carbon taps ex-DuPont chief Ellen Kullman as CEO

Carbon, a Redwood City, California-based 3-D printing startup, has appointed Ellen J. Kullman as CEO. Kullman, the former CEO of DuPont, replaces Carbon founder and chemist Joseph M. DeSimone, who will continue with the firm as executive chairman.

Kullman joined Carbon’s board in 2016, shortly after leaving DuPont. “I am privileged to have spent the last few years on the Carbon board working alongside Joe, one of the greatest entrepreneurs and scientists of our time,” she said in a statement. “Joe has built Carbon into the world’s leading digital manufacturing platform.”

DeSimone founded Carbon in 2013 while a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The company’s machines trace out complex shapes layer by layer using photocurable resins. An oxygen-permeable window in the machines provides more continuous and faster printing than with those based on other 3-D printing technologies such as stereolithography. Carbon’s machines can also process a wide array of resins, including epoxies, acrylics, polyurethanes, and silicones.

DeSimone positioned Carbon’s technology as a way to use 3-D printing on the factory floor. Today, Adidas is using Carbon’s machines to make sneaker soles, and Ford Motor plans to use the technology to fabricate auto parts. Carbon raised $260 million from investors earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $680 million.

“Ellen is the right person to lead Carbon today,” DeSimone said in a statement, noting that her experience will benefit the firm as it takes off.

Kullman became DuPont’s CEO in 2009. Her last year with the company, 2015, was tumultuous. She fought off a challenge from the activist investor Nelson Peltz in the spring, but left the firm in the fall following a lackluster earnings report. Her successor, Ed Breen, immediately started negotiating a merger with Dow Chemical.

Kullman recently submitted an affidavit in a lawsuit that the DuPont spin-off Chemours brought against DuPont. Chemours claims that it was saddled with an unfair burden of liabilities related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Kullman, who presided over the spin-off, supported Chemours’ case when she said “DuPont unilaterally determined the terms of the separation agreement.”