Align Technology Appoints Raj Pudipeddi Chief Product And Marketing Officer, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Asia Pacific Region Succeeding Julie Tay, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific

Align Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALGN), a leading global medical device company that designs, manufactures, and sells the Invisalign system of clear aligners, iTero intraoral scanners, and exocad CAD/CAM software for digital orthodontics and restorative dentistry, today announced that Raj Pudipeddi, Align Technology chief product and marketing officer, and senior vice president will assume additional responsibility for the commercial organization in the Asia Pacific region as managing director, effective immediately, succeeding Julie Tay, Align Technology senior vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific. Ms. Tay will remain an Align executive in the role of senior vice president, commercial strategy through February 2022 to enable a smooth transition and provide support for the Company’s annual strategic planning process.
“I want to thank Julie for her lasting contributions to Align and our Asia Pacific business which has grown exponentially over the past eight years under her leadership,” said Joe Hogan, Align Technology president and CEO. “Throughout her tenure, Julie built a strong Asia Pacific organization, whose leadership will work closely with Julie and Raj to ensure a smooth transition, delivering on our strategic growth initiatives across the region. We are fortunate that Julie will remain through February and impart her extensive commercial experience and insights as we evolve the strategies for several of our emerging high growth markets globally. On behalf of our board of directors and executive management team, I wish Julie the very best. At the same time, I am pleased that Raj will expand his scope to include management of our Asia Pacific business. Raj has strengthened our product, innovation and marketing teams over the last two and half years. His invaluable experience from previous leadership positions in the Asia Pacific region make him ideal to further strengthen our commercial operations. This is an exciting time for Align, especially in Asia Pacific where the growth opportunity across products, customer channels and markets remains immense.”
Raj Pudipeddi joined Align in 2019 as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. Mr. Pudipeddi is responsible for the global product, marketing, innovation, business development and clinical teams. Mr. Pudipeddi has 26 years of business leadership and brand building experience across consumer goods and telecom. He started his career at Procter & Gamble and served in a number of leadership roles across businesses in North America, Asia and Latin America. Most recently, he served as chief marketing officer and director, Consumer Business at Bharti Airtel, an Indian telecom leader. Mr. Pudipeddi earned an M.B.A. degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Gandhi Institute of Technology in India.
Julie Tay joined Align in 2013 as vice president and managing director of the Asia Pacific region, where she successfully drove Align’s strategy to build the Asia Pacific business by acquiring regional distributors and investing in sales, marketing, and clinical operations - including establishing the first training centers in the region. During this period, Align opened its first treatment planning and aligner manufacturing facilities in China to support rapid growth and adoption in China initially and has expanded to support other country markets in Asia Pacific.
The Company also announced today that Srini Kaza, Align Technology vice president of product research & development has been promoted to senior vice president, reporting directly to Align president and CEO Joe Hogan. Mr. Kaza previously reported to Raj Pudipeddi. As senior vice president of product research & development, Mr. Kaza is responsible for a broad range of technologies (biomechanics, CAD, CAM, advanced materials, 3D software algorithms, emerging technologies, clinical affairs) specifically focused on driving product innovation and improving product performance across the Invisalign portfolio, as well as investigating next generation and state of the art manufacturing technologies, working with software teams to envision and develop several 3D CAD tools - and other innovations.
Mr. Hogan continued, “Product technology and innovation are core to Align and I am thrilled to have Srini join the executive team. Over the past 22 years, Srini has been responsible for delivering significant innovations, each with increasing complexity and sophistication, resulting in continued growth and adoption of the Invisalign system globally. As Align’s first manufacturing engineer, Srini developed several technologies and processes that created the building blocks for Align’s unmatched manufacturing scale, including a rapid manufacturing process using stereolithography (3D printing) technology, a 3D scanning process, and led development of key technologies and processes that significantly improved performance of the Invisalign system. I am looking forward to working with Srini and his team as we develop the next generation of product technology and innovations that enable the Align Digital Platform.”