Business - Appointments

CWE Solutions has celebrated the start of 2012 by employing two new recruits.

Mark Hollinsworth and Ioanna Xenophantes are both experienced print professionals, driven, knowledgeable, and eager to help CWE Solutions expand.  Since it was formed in 1999, the company has grown significantly and is now one of the biggest firms in the UK’s print and signage market.

Mark Hollinsworth is the new Operations Manager for CWE Solutions, responsible for the internal sales team for London and Sheffield as well as the external sales team in London. He describes himself as very much a people person, and the aim of his new role as maximising every opportunity for the company.

He explains that his role was newly created to provide a direct link between the MD and the sales team, to ensure the company can continue to grow and to “move things on to another level”.

With 16 years’ experience in the industry, Mark thrives on the challenges that this new role provides. And he will likely be with CWES for the long-term, if his track record is anything to go by – he was with his previous employer, Metamark, for 12.5 years, and describes Metamark as a fantastic company.

Mark believes one of the biggest challenges of his new role is winning the trust of his team. “I need them to know that I’m willing to go out on a limb for them,” he explained. The thing he’s most excited about in his new role is proving he can excel at the job. “Being a success, and proving myself. That doesn’t mean money but rather when you get that pat on the back and told you’ve done a good job. I can’t wait to prove myself at CWES.”

Ioanna Xenophantes has recently taken on the role of Internal Account Manager at CWES. This position means she is heavily involved in pro-active sales, which she greatly enjoys, and in particular with growing existing accounts, as well as meeting customers onsite when needed.

Having worked in the print industry for 14 years, Ioanna wanted to work for CWES as she already knew much about the company and viewed the role of Account Manager as a challenging yet rewarding one.

Previously, Ioanna enjoyed working for PaperCo, where her position entailed identifying new sales of Roland printers within the commercial print market and design to print sector. As part of this role she followed through from initial enquiry to demonstration to sale, as well as looking after the needs of existing users of wide format equipment within these sectors. In her job at CWES, she gets to learn about the large format print equipment and HP printers, and to experience a previously unfamiliar sector of the market.

Although new to the role, Ioanna describes “working with HP equipment and learning about the equipment” as the element she’s most excited about – as well as the prospect of “bringing in lots of new sales”.

For more information on CWE Solutions, please visit www.cwesolutions.co.uk

[photo shows Mark Hollinsworth (L) and Ioanna Xenophantes (R)]

UK-based UV LED innovator Integration Technology Ltd has appointed digital print industry professional Yasushi Katsuta as Business Development Manager for its operations in Japan which will be opened in March 2012.

The Oxfordshire-based company's offices in Fuchu-shi, Tokyo, will provide technical sales, parts stores and administration functions for the territory and for ITL's exclusive distributors.

Osaka-born Katsuta joins ITL from NEopt, where for the past two years he represented ITL interests in Japan.  He previously worked extensively for inkjet print head maker Xaar as Development and Sales Engineer.   

ITL has operated in Japan since 2001 in conjunction with NEopt supporting its digital graphics market business and Finesensing handling a growing number of specialist industrial applications for ITL technology.

Yasushi Katsuta will be showcasing ITL UV curing systems on the NEopt stand at the Printable Electronics exhibition from 15th to 17th February in Tokyo.

X-Rite has appointed Vic Stalam as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing overseeing all sales, marketing and services activities for the Americas and EMEA regions.  He will also serve on X-Rite’s senior leadership team as a corporate officer. Stalam will be based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and report directly to Thomas J. Vacchiano, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of X-Rite.

“Vic has an exceptional track record of success in developing and growing businesses,” said Vacchiano. “His broad set of experiences will bring great value to X-Rite as we pursue our strategic growth opportunities.”

Most recently, Stalam served as the Vice President, Commercial Sales in the U.S. and Canada for the Eastman Kodak Company. His team was responsible for selling the complete portfolio of Kodak products and solutions delivering approximately $1 billion in revenue. Stalam advanced rapidly through a succession of sales, marketing and senior management positions at the Eastman Kodak Company, including head of the Global Key Accounts & Channel Management and Vice President - Packaging Business, and General Manager and Vice President - Digital Products and Systems. During his career at Kodak, Stalam led the teams that built several new businesses, like its Approval, DigiMaster, and Flexo Packaging solutions.

Stalam holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Osmania University, India, a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Master’s of Business Administration in Marketing from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Over the past year, wide format manufacturer Roland DG, has been spearheading a marketing strategy change, with an increasing focus on web and social media marketing. This can be seen in the recent launch of the Roland forum and online Creative Awards competition.

To further develop Roland DG's web marketing strategy, they are now recruiting an Online Content and Academy Training Manager.

This position involves running live training sessions at the Roland DG Academy, as well as developing online videos, blogs and tutorials. It also includes finding new ideas and samples for the Roland Creative Centre, to show customers what is possible with wide format. Plus, the role will involve working with our dealers at open days and at Roland events.

Head of Marketing, Gillian Montanaro states, "This is a really exciting role within print. We are looking for a person who has the unusual combination of technical, creative, social media and sales skills. It could be someone who has run their own print business, comes from a training background, or even a designer who has since moved into the production environment."

For full details of the role please contact gillian.montanaro@rolanddg.co.uk

Manel Martinez has been named as Vice President & General Manager for the HP Graphics Solutions Business in EMEA. He will be responsible for driving HP's graphics arts portfolio from signage and packaging to technical printers and publishing amongst the different printing communities across the region.

Manel brings over two decades of experience in the printing industry in both a worldwide and regional capacity.  His background will enable him to promote and exploit the migration towards digital print amongst the design, branding and marketing communities, demonstrating the power of print as an integral aspect of brand communication.

For the last two years, Manel has been in the role of Vice President and General Manager of the HP Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) in the Iberia Region. He was responsible for optimizing efficiency, effectiveness and critical growth and increased performance across the region.

Prior to this role, Manel was the General Manager of the Large Format Printing design business at a worldwide level. This role included the responsibility for the strategy and direction of the business targeted at both the technical and creative industries. Manel directly managed the design focused teams in Barcelona and Shanghai.

Manel joined HP in 1989 and has held a number of different positions covering overall business group management, R&D and marketing. He has also worked as an engineer developing firmware for Large Format products.

Manel holds a degree in Computer Science from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and a MBA from ESADE in Barcelona.

More information is available at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts or follow HP on www.twitter.com/hpgraphicarts.

Chun Yip Man has been named as the new Project Manager for Viscom Germany, succeeding Christian Hruschka who is leaving the organisation after 10 years to pursue new professional challenges.

Prior to joining Viscom, Chun Yip Man worked with a Düsseldorf IT company in the logistics sector for more than ten years. As Project Manager, he organised international events.  Most recently, Chun Yip Man was responsible for the company’s marketing and trade fair planning as Manager of International Exhibitions.

At Viscom, Chun Yip Man will take over the management of a trade fair which, since its revamping in 2006, has increased its visitor numbers by 60 percent overall, and its exhibitor numbers by 78 percent. The recent viscom 2011 in Düsseldorf attracted 306 exhibitors and more than 10,000 trade visitors from a number of sectors including advertising technology, light advertising, digital printing, textile finishing, digital signage and display/PoS.

The overall management of viscom düsseldorf and frankfurt will remain in the responsibility of Event Director Petra Lassahn.