Nov 07, 2008 
Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, announced the appointment of Tom Nash to the position of President of the Surface Inspection Systems Division (SISD). Mr. Nash reports to Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Chairman and CEO of Cognex.
Cognex's Surface Inspection Systems Division specializes in developing turnkey vision systems that are used to inspect the surfaces of metals, paper, plastics, and other materials manufactured in a continuous process. Mr. Nash takes over management of this division from Dr. Markku Jaaskelainen, who has taken on the responsibility of building a team to develop and market a low-cost and easy-to-use PC-based vision system for inspecting the surfaces of materials. Dr. Jaaskelainen will continue to report to Robert J. Shillman.
Mr. Nash joins Cognex after serving as Vice President of Operations and Marketing for BTU International, a global supplier of thermal processing and automation systems for the electronics, semiconductor and solar equipment markets. At BTU, he was responsible for marketing, product development, and engineering for the Electronics Business Group, and he simultaneously managed two manufacturing facilities located in the U.S. and China.
Prior to his career at BTU he served as President of CIMCIS Ltd., a start-up software company that develops real-time process control software for the electronics assembly market. Mr. Nash has also worked for two divisions of the Black & Decker Corporation: first as Director of Marketing & Product Development with the DYNAPERT division, and later served as General Manager of the LaClede business unit as well as the Director of Marketing of its Emhart Glass division. He holds a B.S. degree from Boston College, and an MBA from Babson College.
"I am very excited to welcome Tom as the new President of our Surface Inspection Systems Division," said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Chairman and CEO of Cognex. "Tom brings a wide range of successful experiences in companies both large and small managing various aspects of global businesses from product development to sales and marketing. And, I expect that his more than 10 years of experience doing business in China will enable Cognex to continue or even accelerate .SISD's current strong growth in that part of the world."
Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets machine vision sensors and systems, or devices that can "see." Cognex vision sensors are used in factories around the world to automate the manufacture of a wide range of items and to assure their quality. Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 450,000 machine vision systems, representing over $2.5 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. In addition it its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices and distributors located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
