Mark Adams has been named vice president of corporate development and strategy. He will be responsible for identifying growth markets, acquisition targets and closing deals. He has already been working with the firm as a consultant over the past few months.

"Mark has already added tremendous value to EFI while working with us as a consultant," said EFI chief executive Guy Gecht. "We've benefited from his experience and meticulous research, as well as from the creative new business development ideas he has brought to our discussions."

The firm said it was too early to provide details of Adams' strategic plans or details of areas it was targeting for acquisitions.

Adams' previous roles include acting vice president, data networking at cordless telephony firm Vtech Communications and founder and chief executive of wireless infrastructure firm Mspect.

* EFI has launched a new version of its shopfloor data collection product Auto-Count and publication planning software Prograph. The new version of Auto-Count is more tightly integrated with the firm's MIS packages.

Story by Barney Cox