Former Apple Hardware Chief Dan Riccio Joins Formlabs as Advisor and Investor

Formlabs announced on August 13 that Dan Riccio, Apple's former Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, is joining the company as a strategic advisor and investor. Riccio spent decades at Apple leading the teams that built the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. His new role puts him alongside a company that has grown from Kickstarter origins into the largest professional SLA and SLS 3D printing platform outside the traditional industrial giants.

The announcement arrived with a broader board restructuring. Founder and CEO Max Lobovsky moves into the Chairman role, succeeding co-founder Natan Linder, who steps down after fifteen years on the board and will stay on as a strategic advisor. Chief Product Officer Dávid Lakatos, one of Formlabs's earliest employees, is named President and joins the board. Nadia Shouraboura, who came on board in 2022 after leading worldwide supply chain and fulfillment at Amazon, becomes Lead Director.

What Riccio brings

Riccio's career at Apple spanned hardware design at a scale very few companies have ever attempted. He oversaw product design and hardware engineering across the full Apple lineup, managing teams that shipped products used by hundreds of millions of people. Formlabs, by comparison, is still a fraction of that size, but its ambitions are moving in the same direction: industrial-grade reliability, tight integration between hardware and software, and a focus on manufacturing at scale.

In his own statement, Riccio said: "Formlabs has quietly built one of the most complete hardware, software, and materials platforms I've seen outside of a handful of the world's best consumer companies. The attention to detail in how these systems are engineered, and the ambition to make industrial-grade manufacturing accessible, is exactly the kind of problem I want to spend my time on."

Alongside Riccio, board member Rob Willett, former CEO of Cognex Corporation, is increasing his stake in Formlabs. Willett said: "I said when I joined the board that Formlabs was uniquely positioned to lead the next era of digital manufacturing. Everything I've seen since has convinced me to lean in further."

The board shuffle explained

Lobovsky becoming Chairman while Lakatos takes over as President separates governance from day-to-day product management. Lakatos has shaped the Formlabs product lineup for over a decade, from the first Form 1 through the current Form 4, Form 4L, and Fuse series. His promotion keeps product continuity stable while Lobovsky focuses on longer-term board strategy.

Linder's transition to advisor after fifteen years on the board is one of the more significant changes for the company internally. Lobovsky's statement acknowledged Linder's foundational role: "Natan joined me in founding this company, betting on the idea and betting on me before almost anyone else. He has contributed in many ways as a cofounder and board member and will continue to contribute as an advisor."

Shouraboura's appointment as Lead Director brings deep Amazon supply chain experience to the top table. Formlabs is expanding its manufacturing footprint, and Shouraboura's background in scaling global operations is directly relevant to that challenge.

Where Formlabs stands

Formlabs reports annual revenues above $250 million and says its customers have now printed more than 500 million parts across engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, dental, and consumer applications. The company has been adding to its portfolio steadily: the Fuse 1 and Fuse X1 for SLS, the Form Auto for automation, and a materials library that now exceeds 45 options. The Form 4 and Form 4L remain its core SLA offerings, and the company continues to push into industrial applications that used to be the exclusive domain of much larger, more expensive systems.

Bringing in Riccio suggests the next phase involves a step up in product ambition and manufacturing rigour. Whether that translates into visibly different hardware, expanded industrial features, or faster product cycles is not yet clear. What is clear is that Formlabs is positioning itself as a company ready to be judged by the standards of the consumer electronics industry it is courting for talent and investment.