New Leaders You Should Know: Jim Bureau - Loftware

CEO is hardly a new label for Jim Bureau but now he is leading a company that labels everything. In June, he was named CEO of Loftware, a cloud-based enterprise labeling and artwork management provider that generates more than $100 million in annual revenue, ranking it among NH’s Top 100 Private Companies (#40 in 2022). 

At Loftware, Bureau leads a global workforce of nearly 600 people from its headquarters at the Pease Tradeport in Portsmouth. Loftware’s market spans from the U.S. to Europe and Asia, and its customers include major brands like General Electric and the McCormick Company. 

For those still not sure what Loftware does and how it got so big, Bureau describes it this way: “When you think about label management, this includes anything and everything that could be branded with a label,” he says, including pharmaceuticals, electronics, chemicals and a host of other products. “Anything that goes on the product itself, or the containers that ship the product, that’s what we do.”

Bureau succeeds CEO Robert O’Connor, who led the company for 13 years, including strategic acquisitions in 2018, 2021 and 2022 that expanded its global markets as well as the industries it serves, including artwork management and the clinical trials market in the life sciences sector. He’s a tough act to follow.

Bureau, though, takes the helm with an impressive tech resume. Before coming to Loftware, Bureau served as CEO at JAGGAER, a global provider of cloud-based business automation technology. Under Bureau’s leadership, recurring revenue at JAGGAER increased 55% as he transitioned the company to a SaaS model. He also transformed the go-to-market messaging and helped the company shift from spend management to Autonomous Commerce, resulting in a 45% improvement in partner-sourced revenue. 

Previously, Bureau served as the senior vice president of North America at Verint Systems/KANA Software and as vice president of sales for Pegasystems and held leadership roles at Shared Health, Oracle, and 3M.

For labelling companies, traceability and compliance within the supply chain are critical for success. Park Durret, managing director of Accell-KKR, a Loftware investor, says Bureau’s track record makes him the right person for the job. “As the industry grows and changes, we knew it would be important that our new CEO help the company continue to innovate and deliver best-in-class solutions that meet the market’s evolving needs,” says Durret. 

Bureau sees plenty of opportunity in the marketplace and plans to grow the company to $300 million to $400 million in revenue. “When you think about the market we serve, they’re major brands in all of the core markets around the globe,” he says. “It’s a very resilient market.”