Technifex, a leader in live and simulated special effects, has announced the appointment of Ian MacVittie to the role of Executive Vice President of Technifex XR. This follows other recent changes to the company’s executive leadership, with the appointments of Duf Sundheim, Director of Strategic Planning/Legal Counsel, John Polk, Vice President, Senior Project Director, and Howard Smith, Vice President Production.
MacVittie joins the company after 22 years at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he has grown a reputation as a thought leader in the industry and has worked on a number of award-winning projects.
Technifex develops new technologies
Technifex is expanding, with the addition of new subsidiaries and the scaling of new business verticals, taking advantage of opportunities in both current and new markets and continuing its track record of technological innovation.
During his time at Disney, MacVittie’s multinational teams embraced new technologies and revolutionised processes. This led to the development of award-winning and memorable animation systems and environments across the globe. MacVittie was responsible for the transformation of Disney’s animation design and manufacturing of animated figures, through digital pipelines, advance additive manufacturing techniques, technical innovation and digital simulation.
He also spearheaded the design and production of the largest animation and show
systems expansion for the Tokyo Disney Seas project, where he worked to streamline
animation production strategies, developed show systems integration and built a strong network of vendors around the world.
Experienced leadership
MacVittie brings strong team-building and relationship building skills to his new role at Technifex, in addition to this excellent knowledge of technology. Here, he will lead the new subsidiary, Technifex XR, reporting directly to Monty Lunde, President/CEO of Technifex.
“I am extremely excited to have Ian join our team at Technifex,” says Lunde. “With our 37 years of experience engineering and producing immersive entertainment systems, the addition of Ian and his global entertainment experience, exceptional technical skills and innovative thinking adds greatly to our brain trust.
“He also provides focus as we grow Technifex XR to be a premier supplier of highly immersive and visceral training systems. Technifex XR will create training scenarios that are unlike anything on the market.”
“I’m very happy to be joining Technifex at this pivotal moment and working closely with Monty and the team. I look forward to further strengthening Technifex XR alliances and producing immersive training and simulation environments that set new standards in the industry,” adds MacVittie.
Technifex announced the launch of Technifex XR at the end of 2020. This new entity will provide immersive extended reality technology for training and simulations, for military personnel and first responders, combining VR/AR with practical special effects.
