Chris
Payne
Chairman of the Board, NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies
Director, Business to Business Marketing and Vice President, Chief Marketing Office, Eastman Kodak Company
Christopher J. Payne serves as Eastman Kodak Company’s Director of Business to Business Marketing and Vice President of the Chief Marketing Office, and also leads the corporation’s Strategic Planning Group.
As Director of B2B Marketing, Chris provides overall marketing direction for Kodak’s $3 billion business-to-business group. He focuses on leading the marketing organization to define strategies, programs and processes that add value to Kodak’s customers’ businesses. As head of strategic planning, Chris manages Kodak’s corporate strategy process, ensuring a long-term, sustainable business approach to deliver value for its customers.
Prior to his current roles, Chris was Director of Future Marketing for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. In this capacity, he led the formation of group market strategy, including the acquisitions that currently comprise Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group, and focused on creating a complete, solutions-based portfolio designed to improve customers’ business.
Previously, Chris served as Chief Marketing Officer of NexPress Solutions LLC, which at the time was a joint venture of Kodak and Heidelberg. He joined NexPress in 1999, to lead the company’s sales and marketing efforts as it became a world-leading marketer and manufacturer of digital printing solutions.
Prior to joining NexPress, Chris served as Director of Marketing at Xeikon N.V., and worked to extend Xeikon’s position as one of the world’s leading companies in the digital color print market. He joined Xeikon in as Vice President of Marketing for Xeikon North America Inc., where he successfully established Xeikon N.V.’s first overseas subsidiary operation in Chicago.
Chris was educated in Scotland and graduated with top honors from Napier College in Edinburgh, where he studied Printing, Administration and Production. He later spent two years in sales for web and sheetfed printers prior to joining prepress equipment manufacturer Crosfield Electronics Ltd. in the UK.
At Crosfield, Chris gained vast experience in international sales and marketing within the graphic communications market through a series of senior appointments. From his first position in the Market Research department, he progressed rapidly to become Business Manager of File Servers, was promoted to UK Country Manager and quickly advanced to the position of Business Manager for the Output Systems Group, directing Crosfield’s largest business division with millions of dollars in revenue.
Chris was elected as a full member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 1995.