Appoints Hull Xu as Chief Financial Officer
CAMPBELL, CA, Apr 23, 2024 – Velo3D, Inc., a leading metal additive manufacturing technology company for mission-critical parts, announced changes to its leadership structure as well as that its re-alignment initiatives to maximize cash flow and operational efficiency remain on plan.
The company has appointed Hull Xu as its new chief financial officer, replacing acting CFO Bernard Chung, who will leave the Company on April 29, 2024 following the acceptance of another opportunity. Mr. Xu brings more than 15 years of corporate finance experience in the technology industry, most recently with Cepton, Inc. as chief financial officer as well as significant capital markets and investment banking experience at the Royal Bank of Canada, Barclays Capital, and GE Capital. He will be responsible for the company’s finance, accounting, treasury, corporate development, and investor relations activities. Mr. Xu holds an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.
Additionally, Michelle Sidwell, the company’s executive vice president of global sales and business development has been appointed to the newly created position of chief commercial officer to unify sales, product strategy, and the company’s customer service initiatives. She will now oversee the company’s sales, marketing, customer service and business development organizations. The company also announced that Renette Youssef, chief marketing officer, will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
“We are excited to announce the appointment of Hull as chief financial officer. He is a highly accomplished financial executive who brings more than 15 years in financial, operating and capital market experience to Velo3D and his knowledge will be critical in the execution of our strategic priorities,” said Brad Kreger, CEO of Velo3D. “I would also like to thank Bernie for his dedication and guidance, especially over the last 6 months, as we positioned the Company for future success and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.”
“Additionally, we are also pleased to announce the appointment of Michelle Sidwell as our chief commercial officer. Michelle has been instrumental in rebuilding our bookings pipeline in addition to working tirelessly to improve the success of our customers. We believe that by combining all customer facing responsibilities into one organization, we will improve organizational efficiency, accelerate our ability to respond to customer feedback and provide a comprehensive go to market approach.”
“Overall, I am very pleased with our strategic initiative execution so far this year. We are successfully rebuilding our backlog and pipeline as we booked $27 million in new orders since mid-December 2023. Also, our efforts to improve system reliability are paying off as we are seeing increased orders from existing customers while rapidly expanding our footprint in the defense sector. Finally, we are continuing to execute on our cost realignment programs to improve margins and cash flow.”
About Velo3D
Velo3D is a metal 3D printing technology company. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), has a unique ability to improve the way high-value metal parts are built. However, legacy metal AM has been greatly limited in its capabilities since its invention almost 30 years ago. This has prevented the technology from being used to create the most valuable and impactful parts, restricting its use to specific niches where the limitations were acceptable.
Velo3D has overcome these limitations so engineers can design and print the parts they want. The company’s solution unlocks a wide breadth of design freedom and enables customers in space exploration, aviation, power generation, energy, and semiconductor to innovate the future in their respective industries. Using Velo3D, these customers can now build mission-critical metal parts that were previously impossible to manufacture. The fully integrated solution includes the Flow print preparation software, the Sapphire family of printers, and the Assure quality control system—all of which are powered by Velo3D’s Intelligent Fusion manufacturing process. The company delivered its first Sapphire system in 2018 and has been a strategic partner to innovators such as SpaceX, Honeywell, Honda, Chromalloy, and Lam Research. Velo3D has been named as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023.
For more information, please visit Velo3D.com.