One of the original Co-founders of Shapeways, Robert Schouwenburg will be bringing his industry experience to expanding Protolabs Network's presence in the North American market from our new U.S. headquarters at mHUB in Chicago.
More about Robert
Robert Schouwenburg has been active in technology startups his entire working life. He is one of the original Co-founders of Shapeways, an online community and marketplace for personalized production. Most recently, Robert was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at RGAx, where he developed innovative products in the life insurance space.
Over the course of his career, Robert's work has touched on 3D printing, manufacturing, high tech communication equipment, product development, and delivering scalable internet services.
Robert comments:
“One of the things I learned early on is that 3D printing is only going to be a partial solution for manufacturing,” says Schouwenburg, “but more traditional technologies like CNC Machining and Injection Molding, are key to growing digital manufacturing and bringing the next phase of the industry to life. We’re at the start of ‘industry 4.0’, an era when automation and data exchange will accelerate manufacturing technologies, and Protolabs Network is uniquely positioned to become a leader in this upcoming industrial revolution.”
Doubling down on our U.S. team
With our C-round funding, we’ve been able to further invest in our goal of making cutting-edge, high-quality manufacturing available to more engineers. The United States is our fastest-growing market, and our decision to open an office in Chicago and appoint Robert to the role of Managing Director USA are two critical steps towards making Protolabs Network accessible to a broader community of engineers.
We’re further strengthening our roots in North America by doubling our U.S. team. Robert will be working with the Chicago team to expand the Protolabs Network's CNC Machining services offering in the Chicago metropolitan area.
From Protolabs Network CEO and Co-founder Bram de Zwart:
"I'm thrilled to have Robert leading our U.S. business. He has built an incredible track record in the manufacturing and hardware space and, with his extensive background in scaling companies, I'm confident that our U.S. business will continue to grow 150 percent annually. We plan to become the largest on-demand manufacturing solution in America and nobody is better equipped than Robert to lead our success. His talents paired with our platform create the kind of winning combination that gets us even more excited about the future. “
Learn more about the Protolabs Network platform here.
