Kodak Names Faraci President and COO
Eastman Kodak named Philip Faraci president and chief operating officer Monday, as the photography pioneer continues a four-year drive toward sustained growth in digital markets.
Faraci, 52, who ascended to the No. 2 spot in less than three years, replaces James Langley, 57, who led Kodak's graphic communications unit. Langley will be a senior vice president until his retirement later this year, the company said.
Led by Antonio Perez, a Hewlett-Packard transplant who took control of Kodak in 2005, the world's top maker of photographic film is applying the finishing touches to a drastic digital makeover.
Kodak said the appointment of Faraci, also from HP , positions the company for the next phase in which it will "build bigger digital businesses and continue the effective management of its traditional business."
Kodak still believes that film will generate enough revenue to survive the most painful passage in the company's 126-year history.
Faraci, president of Kodak's consumer imaging group since October 2005, assumes responsibility for the day-to-day management of both the consumer digital and graphic communications units, Kodak's two major digital businesses.
"With a single leader for the digital businesses, we will be able to leverage our technology across product lines more effectively," Perez said in a statement.
Kodak has piled up nearly $3.2 billion in restructuring charges and accumulated $2.1 billion in net losses over the last 11 quarters -- nine of which ended with deficits. The company's work force will slip to around 34,000 at year-end, half what it was five years ago.
Faraci joined Kodak in December 2004 as director of its fledgling inkjet systems business.
In March the company established a chief operating office, headed by Faraci and Langley, to streamline management, reduce administrative costs and push forward a digital transformation.
Faraci spent 22 years at Hewlett-Packard and was COO of Photogenix Imaging, a short-lived Kodak-HP joint venture in San Diego, Calif., that developed digital inkjet photofinishing mini-labs for retail use.