Zebra Technologies Corporation
Leadership History
2 leaders · 1969 to present
Bill Burns is the CEO of Zebra Technologies, in the role since 2023. The first chief executive was Edward L. Kaplan, from 1969.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Burns | CEO | 2023 | Present | 3 |
| Edward L. Kaplan | Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | 1969 | 2007 | 38 |
Zebra Technologies supplies the hardware and software workers use to identify, track, and manage items in warehouses, stores, hospitals, and factories. The company is headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
Zebra sells hardware such as mobile computers, scanners, printers, and RFID readers, mostly through channel partners and resellers, and adds recurring revenue from printing supplies, service contracts, and software. Results follow enterprise device refresh cycles and spending on warehouse, retail, and healthcare projects.
CEO
2023 – Present
3 years (current)
Burns took over as CEO in 2023, immediately implementing a massive $65 million cost-cutting program to counter a severe drop in post-pandemic hardware demand.
He manages the strategic pivot toward enterprise machine vision and AI-driven automation following Zebra's acquisition of Matrox Imaging.
Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
1969 – 2007
38 years
Kaplan co-founded the company as Data Specialties in 1969 with Gerhard Cless and moved it into bar code printers in the 1980s.
He took Zebra public in 1991 and led it until 2007, when Anders Gustafsson succeeded him.
These officers report to the chief executive and are not part of the CEO timeline above.
Hardware refresh cycles; tariff and component costs; integration of acquisitions such as Elo; competition from Honeywell, Datalogic, and machine vision vendors.
Edward L. Kaplan co-founded Data Specialties in 1969 and served as CEO of Zebra Technologies for 38 years until his retirement in 2007, guiding its barcode revolution and 1991 IPO.
Anders Gustafsson became CEO in September 2007 after leading telecom company Spirent Communications, serving as Chief Executive for over 15 years until stepping down in March 2023.
Gustafsson orchestrated the transformational $3.45 billion acquisition of Motorola Solutions' Enterprise business in 2014, shifting Zebra from a specialized printer maker into an enterprise tech leader.
Bill Burns became Chief Executive Officer in March 2023, having previously served as Zebra's Chief Product & Solutions Officer since joining the executive team in 2015.
Burns held senior executive leadership roles at Spirent Communications and served as CEO of Emtelle, bringing over three decades of tech engineering, product architecture, and sales experience.
Burns executed disciplined structural cost-cutting, optimized working capital, protected R&D investments, and positioned Zebra to return to profitable sales growth in 2024.
Nathan Winters serves as Chief Financial Officer, having joined Zebra in 2018 from General Electric to lead global financial planning, capital allocation, and investor relations.
Burns is prioritizing the convergence of hardware, software, and AI: expanding industrial machine vision, autonomous mobile robots, and cloud workforce scheduling tools.
Compare executive leadership tenures and strategic transitions
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