IDS Imaging Development System has strengthened its sales team with the appointment today of Tom Hospod as Sales Director of its North American operations. Hospod joins IDS with more than 20 years of experience in the machine vision industry, most recently with 1stVision Inc. and Princeton Instruments. "At such an exciting time in the expansion and strategic development of the IDS brand, we are delighted to have an experienced professional like Tom on board," said Jürgen Hartmann, IDS founder and managing director. "Tom brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will be invaluable in our drive for growth in North America, especially with our groundbreaking new line of USB 3.0 cameras."

In his new role, Hospod will oversee the IDS North American sales team working directly with the company's growing base of OEM customers and vision system integrators. In addition, he will collaborate with IDS Marketing to ensure that product strategies are translated into actionable team-based sales development tactics. Prior to joining IDS, Hospod served as Sales & Marketing Manager at 1stVision where he built a strong track record of delivering above-quota results for himself and his team selling into the machine vision, industrial automation, and scientific/medical imaging industries. Previously, he was Sales Manager for Eastern United States and Canada for Princeton Instruments, a business unit of Roper Scientific. He has also held sales and marketing management positions at Datacube, Imaging Technology, and Cognex. He holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the University of Hartford.

Hospod succeeds Daniel Seiler who is returning to IDS headquarters in Obersulm, Germany, to a new position in executive management.