Monday, March 1, 2010

Co-founder Wilcox is out at E Ink

By Mass High Tech staff

Russell Wilcox, one of the founders of E Ink Corp., is no longer serving as president, CEO and board director following the purchase of the Cambridge-based electronic paper display maker last June for approximately $215 million. Wilcox was named a Mass High Tech All-Star in November.

E Ink was acquired by Taiwanese display provider Prime View International. The company had a history with E Ink — the two companies partnered on displays for the Kindle 2, and for Sony Corp.’s Reader after Prime View bought the e-paper business of Philips Electronics in 2005.

Wilcox said that he left E Ink at the end of last week, following the close of the acquisition. “After 13 years, it was time to close up that chapter of my life,” he said.

E Ink’s vice president of marketing Sriram Peruvemba said that the E Ink division of PVI has a new top officer, TH Peng, who is based in Cambridge and is running the operations as executive vice president. And Wilcox will continue to have a role at the company, acting as an advisor to PVI’s chairman and CEO Scott Liu.

“Seeing how closely he was involved with the business, chances are he will be in touch with us for a while,” Peruvemba said of Wilcox.

For his part, Peng said that E Ink has been growing and will continue to do so. The company plans to hire an additional 100 workers at both its Cambridge headquarters and the South Hadley manufacturing site, to add to the 170 already on board.

“One year ago it was like 120, and starting from June 2009 we have been encouraging Cambridge to increase manpower,” Peng said.

Wilcox co-founded E Ink in 1997 with Joe Jacobson, Jerry Rubin, Barrett Comiskey and J.D. Albert. His first role was as vice president of business development, and he was named president and CEO in January of 2004. Wilcox has a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

His co-founder Albert said of Wilcox in his All-Star profile: “He’s got an incredibly sharp mind. He can think strategically and raise money, but he wants to know technically what’s going on beyond just a basic understanding.”

Wilcox said he is in no hurry to jump into his next business. “I am going to take some time off to catch my breath and look at the world,” he said, noting that he would after some time come back into the business world.

 

 

Editor's note: Article has been updated as of 3:00 p.m. ET, March 1, 2010.