Digital finishing equipment and software developer Esko, Lake Geneva, Wis., recently honored industry veteran Simon James for his contribution to Esko and to the packaging industry. In the 1970s James founded AtriosCAD, a CAD/CAM software product for designing folding cartons and associated tooling. AtriosCAD and James later came to Esko where the product has grown in importance and popularity over they years.
Esko’s formal appreciation of James took place at EskoWorld 2013—the company's user conference held in Phoenix—where he was given a warm welcome and standing ovation by the hundreds of Esko users and representatives present during the conference opening session.
As one of the founders of ArtiosCAD, James came to the U.S. in 1978 as president of Lasercomb America. In that role, he was responsible for growing both the software division and manufacturing division to a global presence, creating a company with subsidiaries in the UK, South Africa and Australia. James spun off the manufacturing group to companies in various countries to focus on his software company, Artios, which introduced the industry’s most successful structural packaging design software, ArtiosCAD.
In 2013 the software that James helped to create celebrates its 15th anniversary. ArtiosCAD has become the world’s most popular structural design software for various types of packaging and displays, and the tooling required to produce that packaging. Today, the software enjoys a leading market share and is used by over 15 thousand packaging professionals worldwide.