Digital Manufacturing Experts

Suresh Krishna

President and Chief Executive Officer, Protolabs

Suresh Krishna is President and Chief Executive Officer of Protolabs, a leading digital manufacturer of custom parts. Krishna previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Northern Tool + Equipment. He has also held operations and leadership roles at companies such as Sleep Number Corporation, Polaris Industries and UTC Fire & Security. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology (Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India) and a master’s in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Bjoern Klaas

Vice President & Managing Director EMEA

Bjoern Klaas leads our company’s business in Europe, Middle East and Africa as the Vice President and Managing Director since December 2017.  Mr. Klaas held key positions with global polymer supplier PolyOne between 2012 and 2017, most recently as the Company’s Vice President and General Manager for its ColorMatrix Group headquartered in the United States.  Prior to PolyOne, Mr. Klaas worked at Colorant-Chromatics (2008 – 2012), a global leader for high temperature polymer formulations, as the General Manager for the global business.

Lee Ball

General Manager, Northern Europe

Lee Ball has been a part of the Protolabs EU team since the business launched in Telford in 2005. Lee has progressed from leading our design and mould making processes to becoming Operations Director and now General Manager. Lee has more than 25 years’ experience within manufacturing, bringing his insights and skills to the plastic injection moulding and tool-making industries in numerous sectors from automotive to industrial and household goods.

Lee’s industry experience and proven leadership skills are a valuable asset to our board of directors, and he has worked to support Protolabs’ Japanese business on several occasions.

Daniel Cohn

General Manager, Central Europe

Daniel joined the Protolabs team in 2016 as General Manager of Protolabs GmbH and has been managing the German business since then.
Daniel has extensive international management experience in various industries including mechanical engineering and electronics. 
Daniel's previous experience includes managing a plant in Pengang, Malaysia for Multitest Electronic Systems.

Daniel has expertise in supply chain management, digital manufacturing and international production.

Christoph Erhardt

Head of 3D-Printing & Quality Management

Christoph is Head of 3D Printing & Quality Management at Protolabs Eschenlohe GmbH, a site that specialises in tool construction and 3D printing technologies, especially metals.
Christoph has years of experience with 3D printing metals with additional experience in the area of quality management with a focus on ISO 13485 for medical technology.

Sam Guest

Injection Moulding Product Manager - EMEA

With a background in engineering, sales and manufacturing, Sam is an integral member of the European Product Management Team at Protolabs.
He is responsible for continually evolving the injection moulding offer so Protolabs can assist end-users by providing an optimal service.

Sam’s expertise reaches beyond the core services and is applied to the development and integration of wider applications, improving the suite of the Protolabs proposition.

Andrea Landoni

3D Printing Product Manager - EMEA

Andrea has been working at Protolabs for over 5 years in product management for 3D printing in EMEA. Previous to that Andrea spent 8 years in product management for the automotive industry, as well as strategic planning and account management.

Andrea's extensive technical skills started when he achieved a masters in industrial engineering and are complimented by his marketing and sales knowledge.

Natascia Oprandi

CNC Machining Product Manager - EMEA

Saleem Shariff

Customer Engineer Manager - EMEA

Currently serving as customer engineering manager for EMEA, Saleem has a rich engineering career spanning over 17 years in the industry.
He continues to drive excellence in engineering at Protolabs and has significantly improved customer engagement and satisfaction. With a strategic, hands-on approach that enables him to develop effective solutions to meet customer needs.

In 2019 Saleem's contributions to the field were recognised when he was honoured as part of the top 100 engineers for the Manufacturer awards in the category of unsung hero and innovator.