CEO David Reis will retire at the end of June from day-to-day operations at Stratasys, the 3-D printing and manufacturing solutions company.
He will be replaced by Ilan Levin, the former president of Objet, the Rehovot, Israel-based firm that merged with Stratasys in December 2012, the company said Thursday. Levin will be based in Israel.
Reis has been chief executive of Stratasys since March 2009 and will continue to lead the board of directors.
He oversaw the all-stock merger deal with Objet, a global maker of Polyjet 3-D printers, and is credited with developing a broad, solutions-based business model that targets new manufacturing applications.
But Stratasys, which now is based dually in Eden Prairie and Israel, also struggled under Reis' watch as a rash of competitors entered the once-novel 3-D printing market.
Two years ago, it botched the rollout of its emerging consumer line of desktop 3-D printers at Staples and other retailers, with products that were roiled with defects. The costly malfunctions caused Stratasys to take huge charges and lay off staff.
The company lost $1.4 billion in 2015, the largest figure among publicly traded Minnesota companies.
Wall Street welcomed Thursday's news, as Stratasys stock rose 41 cents to $23.29.
