Jeff Clarke Elected CEO of Kodak
March 13, 2014
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The board of directors of Eastman Kodak Co. has elected Jeffrey J. Clarke as chief executive officer and a member of its board of directors.
Prior to joining Kodak, Clarke was a managing partner of Augusta Columbia Capital (ACC), a private investment firm focused on middle market technology and technology-enabled businesses that he co-founded in 2012. Prior to ACC, Clarke was the Chairman of Travelport, Inc., a private travel technology firm, where he served as CEO from 2006-2011, after leading its sale from Cendant Corp. to the Blackstone Group for $4.3 billion in 2006. During Clarke's tenure, Travelport successfully launched an IPO for its Orbitz business.
“Jeff is the right person to lead Kodak forward. His combination of strengths and experience in technology, transformation, finance, operations, and international business is precisely what we set out to find in the next leader of Kodak. His past leadership positions have included businesses selling hardware, software and services, and printing – with B2B (business to business) customers as well as consumers. The board evaluated many highly qualified and talented people during the search, but it was clear to all of us that Jeff was the one we wanted. We feel extremely confident about Kodak’s prospects with Jeff at the helm,” says James V. Continenza, chairman of the board. “I thank Antonio Perez for his excellent leadership of Kodak through its complex and successful restructuring, and for solidifying our relationships with our valued customers since that time.”
Clarke, 52, says, “I have enormous respect for the people of Kodak, and I am excited to join them in moving the company forward to new successes. This enterprise has some extraordinary opportunities, especially those presented by the company’s proprietary technology in commercial printing, packaging and functional printing. Kodak has made excellent progress, building on one of the most successful reorganizations in recent years, and I look forward to continuing the work underway in transforming Kodak into a global B2B technology leader.
Clarke will continue to serve as chairman of Orbitz Worldwide, a global online travel agency since 2007. He will also continue to serve on the boards of directors of Red Hat, Inc., an enterprise software company, and Compuware Corp., an enterprise software company.
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