Skylum Software promotes Scott Bourne to president, U.S. and China Operations; hires Erik Bjornard as CMO North America
Appointments Strategically Position Award-Winning Creator of Luminar and Aurora HDR Photo Software for Expansive Worldwide Growth, Innovative Product Design
June 7, 2018 — Bellevue, WA — Skylum Software, creator of the award-winning Luminar and Aurora HDR photo software, announced it has promoted Scott Bourne to President, U.S. and Chinese Operations effective immediately. In his expanded position, Bourne will use his extensive business experience in Asia Pacific to build the company’s presence in China, the world’s 2nd largest economy.
“Skylum is a group of passionate people who help photographers solve problems and expand their creative vision,” said Alex Tsepko, CEO of Skylum. “Our goal is to have a team of the world’s best photographers helping other artists create great photos differently. Scott and Erik are really passionate about photography and have the skills and enthusiasm to lead the Skylum revolution in the image editing world.”
“Launching in China will be fun, challenging and exciting and I am looking forward to it,” said Bourne. “I’m also looking forward to facilitating a cross-cultural photo experience, bringing the work of American photographers to the Chinese audience and the work of Chinese photographers to the United States.”
To continue its impressive growth in North America and position itself for the future, Skylum has recruited ex-Animoto marketing chief, Erik Bjornard, as its new chief marketing officer. As a marketing leader with a solid track record for igniting massive user and revenue growths in early-stage environments, Bjornard represents another perfect addition to an expanding, and extremely talented, Skylum team. Bjornard will assume the position of CMO, effective immediately.
“As a long-time fan of Skylum’s innovative products, I couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Alex Tsepko, Scott Bourne, and the talented Skylum team,” explains Erik Bjornard, Skylum’s new CMO for North America. “I’m excited to build on the massive momentum of ground-breaking products like Luminar 2018, and help photographers everywhere create unforgettable images. While Skylum has enjoyed incredible success and growth, I believe we’re only just getting started!”
As CMO North America, Erik will be responsible for accelerating Skylum’s rapidly growing US and Canadian business, setting global brand direction, and driving deep product engagement over time. This includes exposing photographers at all skill levels and every genre to Skylum’s innovative photo editing products. He will also spearhead all go-to-market efforts and strategies for new products, and support product development with client-centric product marketing. “Skylum has been pushing the limits of photo editing for years,” Bjornard says. “I’m eager get Skylum’s market-leading products in the hands of tens of millions of new photographers.”
Skylum recently announced the formation of a new R&D division dedicated to the advancement of artificial intelligence technologies in image processing. The Skylum AI Lab leverages the company’s prior work developing smart filters in its award-winning Luminar software, as well as technology from its “sister company” Photolemur, which was founded in 2016 by Dima Sytnik and Alex Tsepko, co-founder and CEO of Skylum respectively.
About Scott Bourne
Scott Bourne is a pioneer in digital photography and was named one of the “30 most influential photographers on the Web” by Huffington Post. His photographic experience spans four decades and his wildlife images have been published in more than 200 magazines and periodicals. He is an Olympus Visionary, a professional wildlife photographer, author and lecturer who specializes in birds.
Scott has been a founder, co-founder, advisor or early stage investor in several technology companies such as NetRadio, Photofocus, and ViewBug.
About Erik Bjornard
Erik Bjornard is a technology marketing leader with a track record of igniting massive user and revenue growth in early-stage environments. As head of marketing, Erik has grown multiple photography startups into multi-million-dollar market leaders, including venture-backed Animoto and bootstrapped ViewBug. Additionally, his passion for photography and technology have led him to advise many startups on growth, marketing and monetization.
About Skylum Software
Skylum Software (formerly Macphun) is a Washington-based photo software developer with the mission to make complex photo editing simple and user-friendly. Thanks to its innovative approach and high-end proprietary technologies, Skylum products have won dozens of various awards, including “Best of the Year” awards by Apple for six straight years. Luminar was honored with the “Best Imaging Software 2017” award by TIPA and “Best Software Plugin” in October 2017 by the Lucie Technical Awards. Aurora HDR was selected as the “Best Mac App of 2017” by Apple.
To learn more about Skylum, please visit http://skylum.com/.