A new chief executive has been appointed to lead a Weymouth business forward.

Magicard, one of the leading global manufacturers of secure ID card printers, has appointed Ian Cliffe as chief executive, following a year of strong investment and growth.

Over the past 18 months since an MBO backed by private equity group LDC, the investment in Magicard has been significant and the company is now poised for further expansion over the coming years.

Ian brings a strong track record in business transformation and augments the Magicard senior management team with his depth of financial and commercial experience.

Ian was part of the Motorola leadership team that carved out and integrated its Enterprise division into Zebra Technologies in 2014. In recent times, Ian was COO and then CEO of Dialogue Group where he led its sale and integration into global mobile services provider CLX Communications.

Commenting on his new position, Ian said: “I am excited about the potential for the Magicard business, not only as a secure ID card printer manufacturer, but also as a real leader in the rapidly evolving world of secure identity.

“The management team have built an agile company with a respected and trusted position in the ID market - this provides a solid platform for accelerating growth into new markets, both geographically and vertically.”

Chris Thomas, Magicard’s chairman said: “Ian’s strategic and commercial experience strengthens the Magicard team considerably and will enable us to fully realise the potential of a strong first year of investment and expansion”.

With all manufacturing operations still in its UK facility, Magicard’s secure ID card printers are installed in more than 100 countries around the world and are printing more than 150 million secure ID cards every year.

Founded in 1992, Magicard is a pioneer of ID card printing with a full range of desktop devices for every secure ID card issuance requirement. Magicard printers are renowned for their built-in security features, including the HoloKote® secure watermark.

Tens of thousands of Magicard printers are shipped from its UK manufacturing centre to more than 100 countries around the World each year. Magicard printers are trusted to print millions of secure ID cards annually, including Drivers Licences and National ID cards. Manufacturing is centred in Weymouth, UK with additional sales and service offices in the United States, United Arab Emirates and China.