Benny Landa

Benny Landa (born 2 June 1946) is an Israeli entrepreneur and inventor. He founded Indigo Digital Press in 1977 and The Landa Group in 2003. In the print production industry, Landa has been called the "father of commercial digital printing."[1][2]

Benny Landa
Founder of Landa Corp., Ltd.
Born (1946-06-02) 2 June 1946
Poland
NationalityCanadian/Israeli
OccupationChairman & CEO, Landa Corporation Ltd.

Biography

Ben Zion (Benny) Landa was born in Poland. When he was two years old, his family emigrated from Europe to Edmonton, Alberta. While in Canada, Landa’s father devised a new camera using bicycle parts and pulleys that captured images directly onto photographic paper, avoiding the need for film.[3]

Landa studied physics and engineering at the Technion in Israel and psychology and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later graduated from the London Film School.

Business career

In 1969, Landa began his professional career at CAPS, a micrographics research company. He helped develop a new micrographic product that earned the company a major contract with Rolls-Royce Aero Engine Division and led to Landa’s appointment as head of Research and Development.

In 1971, Benny Landa and a colleague co-founded Imtec, an international micrographics company. Landa invented the company’s core imaging technology. While researching liquid toners, he developed a method of high-speed image development which used charged pigmented particles in a liquid carrier.

Landa immigrated to Israel in 1974. Applying the filmless imaging concept developed by his father, Landa founded Indigo Digital Printing in 1977. In 1993 at IPEX, he introduced the E-Print 1000, a digital color printing press. Bypassing the printing plate setup process, the new process eliminated numerous costly and time-consuming steps associated with offset printing. It enabled printing from a computer file directly onto paper and launched short-run, on-demand, and variable data printing into the marketplace. The Indigo digital press uses an electric charge to apply small color particles (in liquid form known as ElectroInk), thereby creating a thin, smooth, plastic layer on the substrate. By the 1990s, Indigo became a significant alternative to traditional offset press manufacturers.

In 2002, Landa sold Indigo Digital Printing to Hewlett-Packard for US$830 million.[4] Following the acquisition of Indigo, Landa established The Landa Group for nanotechnology research. Working with nanoparticles, Landa and his team sought to capture environmental heat from the surrounding air and convert it into electricity. Landa’s research group observed that many materials exhibit unusual properties at the nano-level. They used that discovery to experiment with pigment colorants for print production.

Benny Landa presenting his Nanographic Printing technology at Drupa 2012

Landa created Landa Digital Printing to further commercialize the nanotechnology solution for printing. The group developed a printing ink using the nanopigments, which they named Landa NanoInk, along with a digital printing process which they called Nanography. This process uses inkjet heads that place the process colours of ink onto a belt, which in turn deposits the resulting image onto paper.[5]

Landa introduced Nanography and a line of Nanographic Printing presses at Drupa[6][7][8] in 2012. The new nanography technology enables high-speed digital printing with B1 (41 in. / 1,050 mm) format media on all forms of substrates, including untreated paper, films, or plastic. The goal is to allow printers to produce short-to-medium run lengths. The long-term cost effectiveness of the process is still to be determined, since no live production presses have yet been producing sellable work over extended time frames.

Philanthropy

In 2002, Landa and his wife Patsy established the Landa Fund for Equal Opportunity Through Education which has donated more than $50 million in university scholarships. The Landa Fund also supports non-profit organizations in the fields of education and promoting tolerance and understanding between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens.

Honorary doctorate degrees

Board memberships
  • Chairman & CEO, Landa Corporation Ltd.
  • Chairman & CEO, Landa Labs (2012) Ltd.
  • Chairman, HumanEyes Technologies Ltd.
  • Director, Mirage Innovations Ltd.
  • Board of Governors, Weizmann Institute of Science
  • Board of Governors, Tel Aviv University
  • Board of Governors, Technion Israel Institute of Technology

Awards and recognition

In 2014, Landa was named by international accounting firm Ernst & Young as “Israel Entrepreneur of the Year.” [9]

In April 2015, Printing Industries of New England (PINE) presented Landa with its PINE Industry Influencer Award.[10]

Other affiliations

References
  1. Prophet of print: Benny Landa hopes to strike nano-gold
  2. Benny Landa's invisible ink. YNet
  3. "Meet the Benny Landa You Never Knew". Graphic Arts Magazine.
  4. "HP Acquires Indigo". American Printer. Archived from the original on 2013-12-11.
  5. "The Basics of Nanotechnology".
  6. "Shhh. The Sex is Back in Print".
  7. "Benny and the Ink Jets". My Print Resource.
  8. "In Search of Benny the Prophet of Rehovot". Print 21. Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  9. Benny Landa named Israeli entrepreneur of the year Archived June 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  10. Landa to Receive Industry Influencer Award from PINE at Awards Gala
  11. "Indigo Founder Benny Landa Awarded Edwin H. Land Medal".
  12. "Indigo pioneer wins Reed Technology medal".
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