Business - Appointments

As part of its strategy to expand its Wide-Format Division, specialist print solutions supplier Perfect Colours has appointed Simon Landau as Graphics and Colour Director.

Previously with colour software supplier GMG UK, Simon is one of the UK’s leading colour specialists with over 20 years’ experience. Able to certify to FOGRA standards, he has considerable experience in multi-device solutions and has implemented many standardised wide-format production sites of varying complexity throughout the UK. 

As a result, one of Simon’s key initiatives at Perfect Colours is the addition of an advanced colour management service to support clients who print POS and display graphics using multiple wide-format devices and where the production of consistent, accurate colour is critical.

Following Simon’s move to Perfect Colours, GMG UK has appointed the company as ’Master Reseller’ for GMG ProductionSuite, the industry’s most complete colour-accurate wide-format production workflow.

The Perfect Colours Wide-Format Division provides companies with a complete 360 degree service encompassing expert technology, training and support. It sells and supports the most comprehensive range of software, large-format printers, finishing systems, ink and media for a variety of CAD and Display Graphics applications. As a premier supplier of roll-fed and flat-bed aqueous, solvent, UV and latex printers from Canon, Durst, Epson, HP, KIP, Mutoh, Roland and Xerox, Perfect Colours can tailor the very best solution to meet any production needs.

“This is an exciting initiative to be part of,” says Simon. “’Perfect Colours’ describes exactly what we promise to our wide-format customers – which ever print technology they choose. Our expert team advises companies on the best hardware and software for their applications, ensures a standardised, colour accurate, digital print production process across multiple devices to produce consistent end results, and provides on-going training and support. Ultimately, companies want to rely on their systems to deliver the best results with maximum uptime. They can rely on Perfect Colours to ensure this happens.”

Says Jason Burroughs, MD of Perfect Colours: “Simon is the ‘perfect’ person to head up and grow our Wide-Format Division to provide our clients with absolutely everything they need for their wide-format production businesses. To maintain our position as the leading wide-format specialist in the UK we have invested in the best people, an excellent range of equipment and provide the highest level of service and support.”

Markus Finkbeiner, Director Business Unit Wide Format Printing at GMG says: “Simon has worked with GMG for ten years and has an incredible working knowledge of our colour management technology. Combined with Perfect Colours' reputation for providing excellent service it meant this was one of those 'no-brainer' situations, we had no hesitancy in awarding them the Master Reseller status for our ProductionSuite technology.”

Colourgen has promoted Piotr Tumilowicz to the role of Senior Field Service Engineer.

Prior to joining Colourgen in 2007, Piotr's technical career has spanned time with Canon where he worked on small bubblejet and laser printers, to HP and Xerox where he gained experience on production and large format printers.  Since 2007, he was one of a team of Field Service Engineers with Colourgen working largely on OEM Mutoh and Seiko II wide format printers and associated software.

Mark Lambert, Director at Colourgen says, "We created the new role of Senior Field Service Engineer to ensure that the procedures and standards being used by our team of Service Engineers were consistently reviewed and improved.  The aim of this is to give our customers the best possible experience and to ensure both a quality and timely response for their hardware support requirements."

He concludes, "As our technically most experienced team member with excellent interpersonal skills, we felt that Piotr with his 'leave no problem unresolved' attitude was ideally placed to head up the team and offer our customers the high level of value added support expected of Colourgen."

All Print Supplies (APS) has appointed Nathan Burnett to the newly-created role of National Ink Sales Manager.  With immediate effect, he will be responsible for managing APS’s new specialist inks division as well as nationwide sales of Nazdar’s compatible inks.

Says Kevin Wallace, Managing Director, All Print Supplies: “We’ve had great success over recent years selling Nazdar compatible inks for Mimaki and Roland machines as more and more customers look to save money on production costs and ensure they maintain quality.  Until now, responsibility for the sales of these inks has been with our regional sales managers. However, we’ve now got to a point where we need a dedicated inks division and national ink sales manager to accelerate further growth in this part of the business. Customers can potentially achieve savings of up to 25 per cent by purchasing Nazdar compatible inks rather than OEM inks, so I believe there is huge opportunity in the market and we’re very pleased to have Nathan on board. He joins us at a time of strong growth for both our ink products and APS generally.”

Nathan will work closely with existing and new customers who are considering converting to Nazdar compatible inks. As part of this, APS has partnered with Quality Print Services Ltd to provide a service and support package and added confidence for printers converting to Nazdar Inks.

Kevin Wallace continues, “We have also recently launched compatible inks for the HP9000S machine and we are working hard with Nazdar to bring other compatible ink products to market over the next 12 months including a bulk ink distribution system which could potentially save our customers even more production costs.”

Nathan Burnett adds, “I’m joining APS at what is obviously a period of strong growth for the company.  I have a number of years’ experience in the compatible inks market and will use this to help reassure customers that the transition between OEM and compatible inks is not as daunting as it appears or as some would have you believe. APS runs a very thorough in-house testing procedure on all supplied materials because they really understand just how important it is for all customers to have total confidence in the quality, reliability and durability of the inks.  I believe we have a great range of top quality inks supported by a real commitment to customers and I’m excited about taking this out to the market.”

Kevin Wallace concludes, “Giving the customer total confidence is the key to this role and its great Nathan has come on board to help us build awareness amongst our client base around the quality and reliability of the Nazdar inks.  All the inks we sell have been through a robust testing procedure at APS to ensure they meet our exacting standards. In fact, what most All Print Supplies customers are probably not aware of is that we have been using Nazdar inks to print all our Product Swatches and printed samples for the last 3 years and we have been consistently impressed ourselves with the quality and longevity of these inks.  We wouldn’t sell anything we don’t believe in and I know Nathan shares our view on this.  We are looking forward to working with Nathan to ensure this division reaches its full potential.”

EFI has added to its leadership team with the appointment of Steve Green as vice president of sales in the Asia Pacific region and Sam Gulve as vice president of engineering for the EFI India Development Center.

“As we continue to grow the company while deepening our relationship with customers around the globe, we also want to ensure that we have the strongest possible leadership team in place at EFI,” said Guy Gecht, CEO. “Steve and Sam are bringing great experience to our company that will help accelerate our innovation and better serve our customers.”

Steve Green brings 25 years of sales and marketing expertise to his role at EFI.  Prior to joining EFI, he was APAC regional managing director and vice president at Kodak with P&L responsibility for an over-$1 billion technology business in the Asia Pacific region. Green has also held senior positions in sales, marketing, service and general management with Kodak, Creo, Océ and Ricoh. He is deeply ingrained in the printing and publishing industries and in the intricacies of selling and marketing in the Asia Pacific region. Green has a graduate management diploma from the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales Australia, and holds an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia.

EFI also welcomes Samir (Sam) Gulve as vice president of engineering for the EFI India Development Center. In that role, he will be responsible for driving all aspects of local engineering discipline as well as operational management of the EFI India Development Center. During his more than 27 years of diverse global technology experience, Gulve has held various senior management positions at world-renowned companies such as AT&T Bell Labs, Avaya, Netscape, Amdocs and Spice Mobility. He has also managed highly successful startups including Kiva Software, Calico Commerce and Visual Insights, and was co-founder and CEO of the start-up Shakti. During his career, Sam has held key leadership roles in diverse functional areas including Executive Management, R&D, Engineering, Sales, Strategy and Operations. He spent more than two decades in North America in roles with global responsibilities, and for the last 8-plus years, has operated out of India. Gulve holds a B. Tech. in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and an M.S in computer science from Virginia Tech.

For more information about EFI products and services, please visit www.efi.com

Cambridge, UK-based distributor Josero has recruited Steve Wright to develop and support its sales function.  In his new role, Steve is responsible for the development of new business opportunities and the expansion of inkjet product sales.

Loic Delor, Managing Director of Josero comments, “Steve’s role is two-fold: he will be responsible for developing the sales of our full product range in the UK and he’ll also be looking after some of our key accounts.  Like many organisations, we have customers who buy one or two products from us, but are unaware of the full range we supply.  Over the past few years we have diversified into different sectors within the industry to offer a one-stop shop to printing companies.  We need to make everyone aware of just what we can offer.”

Steve has over 20 years experience in the industry, having worked for several well-known organisations in the printing sector, including Tullis Russell Coaters, Drytac, DTL and Ferrisgate.

On his appointment, Steve Wright comments, “This is a great opportunity and I believe I can make a real difference to Josero. My knowledge of products such as media, laminates, inks and printers means I can provide customers with comprehensive advice and ensure they make the best choices for their business.”

Andrew Price has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of PaperlinX.  Dave Allen has stepped down as the Group’s Chief Executive Officer but will remain with the Company until 31 December 2013 to assist with special projects and to work with Mr Price on transition.

Robert Kaye SC, Chairman of PaperlinX, comments, “Significant progress has been made over the last 12 months as the Company restructures its business globally in the face of a declining paper market, while simultaneously focusing on developing its diversified businesses. We would like to thank Dave for his valuable contribution to the turnaround efforts at PaperlinX over the last 12 months.

“We are pleased that Andrew has accepted the role of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Since his appointment as an Executive Director in November 2012, he has been working closely with management, particularly in Europe, to accelerate the restructuring initiatives. Accordingly, the Board is confident that Andrew will be able to return PaperlinX to profitability in the shortest possible time.”

In commenting on his appointment Mr Price said “I am excited about the future of PaperlinX and look forward to building on the good work started by Dave Allen, as we move towards a sustainably profitable business in a very difficult market.”