Pleora Technologies has appointed Jonathan Hou as its new president. He replaces Harry Page, who, along with the firm's chief financial officer, Mike Kelly, announced his retirement.
Hou joined Pleora in 2018 as chief technology officer. Prior to this he was developing automated quality inspection solutions for print applications as director of technology at Global Vision. Previously he held senior management, application engineering, and software design roles in the machine vision, video, graphics and networking industries.
He now leads an expanded management team focusing on growth for the company as it celebrates 20 years in business.
Founded in 2000 by George Chamberlain and Alain Rivard, Pleora helped lead the development of vision standards that accelerated the growth of the machine vision industry. To date the company has shipped more than 300,000 hardware and software products for real-time video and sensor networking over Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 to more than 2,000 global customers.
Entering its third decade, Pleora is now expanding into embedded, machine learning, and smart sensor technologies for the industrial automation, Industry 4.0, medical imaging, and security and defence markets. The company’s new AI Gateway product, which simplifies the training and deployment of machine learning for visual inspection, is now shipping to lead customers.
Pleora's CEO, George Chamberlain, commented: 'Growing from two employees to a staff now approaching 80, we’ve shared a common focus on delivering the best products and support possible. We deeply appreciate the extensive contribution made by Harry and Mike in guiding our corporate direction, and they leave behind a company poised for its next stage of growth under the leadership of Jonathan and the management team.'
Harry Page and Mike Kelly will remain with the company in advisory roles.
'Pleora is celebrating a 20-year milestone in large part thanks to its deep knowledge of the vision industry, systems understanding, and the ability to apply our expertise to help solve customer problems,' said Hou. 'Looking ahead, this expertise will be increasingly valuable as our customers seek new ways to leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and embedded capabilities to reduce costs and improve performance. Supporting these initiatives with innovative new technologies, backed by top-level support, will help fuel continuing success for Pleora and our customers.'
Additional members of the Pleora management team are:
- George Chamberlain remains as CEO, and is focusing on the company’s technology and business strategy.
- Jason Blore manages Pleora’s R&D team as vice president of engineering. Blore led the tactical implementation of Pleora’s product expansion as director of engineering, and now assumes strategic responsibilities as the company grows its offering for new applications and markets.
- John Butler continues as vice president of sales and marketing. Butler has been with Pleora for 12 years in regional sales and sales operations roles, and his in-depth understanding of customer challenges and requirements ensures the company’s sales and marketing efforts align with the ever-evolving vision industry.
- Anis Hanna is promoted to the role of chief operating officer (COO). Hanna made significant contributions in leading a top-performing pre- and post-sales support team as senior manager of application engineering, and as COO will focus on strategic initiatives to further enhance customer intimacy.
- Jennifer Morris continues as vice president of finance and human resources. Morris joined Pleora in 2019, and brings 25 years’ expertise in senior financial management roles in technology, real-estate and financial service sectors.
