Eastman Kodak Company replaced 35-year veteran Daniel Carp as chief executive officer with Antonio M. Perez as the world’s biggest filmmaker struggles to transform itself into a digital imaging company.

Mr. Perez, 59, joined Kodak in April 2003 after a career that included 25 years at Hewlett-Packard Company, where he led efforts to build digital imaging and electronic publishing businesses. He becomes CEO on June 1. Mr. Carp, 57, will remain as chairman until he retires on January 1, Kodak said in a statement yesterday.

“They’re bringing in somebody that has vast experience,” said Chuck Carlson, who manages $62 million for Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Ind., which sold its Kodak shares in the first quarter. “Perhaps you’ll see a speeding up of the shedding of some non-digital assets.”

Shares of Kodak rose 4.4% on optimism Mr. Perez may be more aggressive when dealing with the accelerating decline in film sales. Mr. Carp was counting on growth in digital products and services to mitigate the drop in film sales while closing factories and eliminating jobs.

“Any way you look at it, we’ve done a good job with the transition,” Mr. Carp said in an interview. “But we still face a couple more tough years and I didn’t want to stay that long. I was ready to retire and Antonio is ready to take over.”

Mr. Perez currently serves as president and chief operating officer of Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak, which held its annual meeting in the city yesterday. Mr. Carp recruited Mr. Perez with the intention he would eventually become chief executive.

Shares of Kodak rose $1.13 to $26.58 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Kodak’s stock had dropped 62% during Carp’s tenure, compared with a 21% decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and an 11% decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Kodak was removed from the Dow on April 1, 2004, after its market value fell to about $7 billion, from more than $20 billion in 1999.

“You have to look at what was handed to Carp,” said Christopher Hayes of Hayes Fischer Capital Management in Rochester, which oversees $155 million. “He had to make the transition to digital, and he was the only one willing to make it.But as a shareholder and a bondholder, he hasn’t been successful so far.”

A marketing executive throughout his career, Mr. Carp was the first Kodak chief executive without a background in engineering or chemistry since founder George Eastman.

Mr. Carp joined Kodak in 1970 as a statistical analyst, and during his career served as the general manager in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as Latin America and Canada. He was named president and chief operating officer in 1997 and became chief executive in 2000.

Mr. Perez, a native of Spain, is only the second outsider to head Kodak in its 125-year history besides George Fisher, who Mr. Carp succeeded. He left Hewlett-Packard in 1999 and was chief executive of Gemplus International SA, when the company first sold shares to the public in 2000. He served as a consultant before joining Kodak.

“Investors will view this as a positive because people generally like Antonio and his background with Hewlett-Packard,” said Shannon Cross, principal at Cross Research, an independent research firm based in Short Hills, N.J. “I don’t expect any large changes in Kodak’s strategy.”

Kodak has posted two consecutive quarterly losses. Sales of film and traditional services fell 18% in the first quarter, while growth in digital revenue slowed to 23%. The credit ratings on the company’s $2.4 billion in debt were cut to below investment grade in April by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.

“We are very concerned about their ability to make the transition,” said Mr. Cross. “It’s basically impossible for them to replace what they had.”

Kodak said April 22 it’s unable to provide an net income forecast for the year because of the unpredictable nature of expenses from its January 2004 plan to eliminate as many as 15,000 jobs by 2006 and close about a third of manufacturing and office space. Excluding restructuring costs, Kodak reiterated its forecast of profit of $2.60 to $2.90 a share.

“Now we’re getting critical mass there’s no excuse not to perform,” Mr. Perez said in an interview. “The second challenge is to cut fixed costs ahead of the decline in film. Film decline is accelerating and so are our cost cuts.”

Kodak last year surpassed Sony Corporation to take first place in market share for digital consumer cameras in America, according to IDC, a Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm.

Mr. Carp has bought or agreed to buy at least 14 businesses for more than $3 billion since announcing the digital plan on September 25, 2003. They include the April 1 buyout from Sun Chemical Corporation of Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a joint venture that makes commercial-printing products, and the purchase of Canadian digital equipment maker Creo Incorporated.

“I’m thrilled with this transition,” said Mr. Carp. “We’ve gone a long way and we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but it’s time.”