Jennifer Lawton, serial entrepreneur and former CEO of MakerBot Industries, is set to kick off the Friday session of SSP’s 37th Annual Meeting with the keynote “Reflections on Leadership and Success.” This year’s meeting will be held May 27–29 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia.
Lawton’s talk will pull from her own experiences and reflect on the factors that led to her career success. Her professional ventures include founding and running top tech companies and owning and managing an independent bookstore chain.
“One of our goals for this year’s meeting was to include more programming around strategy, management, and career advancement for SSP attendees,” said Melanie Dolechek and Mary Beth Barilla, co-chairs of the Annual Meeting Program Committee, in a statement. “[Lawton] has helped propel organizations to the top and she has an exciting story to share with attendees. In her most recent role with MakerBot, she helped bring 3D printing to the consumer-level.”
MakerBot, a leader in the growing field of 3D printing, has been at the vanguard of an innovative and disruptive technology since its founding in 2009. As its former president, Lawton was instrumental in transforming MakerBot into a global leader in the desktop 3D printing industry. She started at MakerBot in 2011 and was responsible for the strategy and overall growth of the company, including strategic partnerships, product development, and retail. During her time there the company grew from 40 to 600 employees and was eventually acquired by Stratasys Asia Pacific and Japan in early 2013 for more than $400 million. Lawton was named CEO in September 2014, and with her at the helm MakerBot continued to be a dominant force in desktop 3D publishing.
“We feel we can learn a lot from the changes happening in other industries and markets,” said Dolechek and Barilla. They noted that while Lawton’s experience is outside the field of scholarly communications, “she brings yet another diverse perspective to the table and we hope attendees can apply some of the lessons she’s learned to their own careers as they navigate the rapidly changing landscape of scholarly publishing. She has been an agent of change and innovation and those characteristics are critical to how we, as an industry, will redefine the future of scholarly publishing.”
In addition to her work with MakerBot, Lawton is a respected company builder, technologist, and advocate for fostering entrepreneurship.
In 1991, Lawton co-founded Net Daemons Associates (NDA), an information technology consulting firm. With Lawton as CEO, NDA was recognized on the 1998 Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held U.S. companies, and on the 1997 and 1998 Deloitte and Touche Fast 50 and Fast 500 lists. In 1999, Net Daemons was acquired by Interliant Inc. (formerly Sage Networks), where Lawton served as a senior vice-president. She later worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Softbank and Mobius Venture Capital.
In 2001, Lawton left the corporate world to become the owner of the independent bookstores Just Books and Just Books Too, as well as Arcadia Cafe in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. After ten years running successful retail ventures, Lawton re-entered the business scene, serving as COO for Rockin’ Water and RAM Scientific, and SVP Operations for Mercury Solar Systems. She is currently a board member of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
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