Industry leaders inducted during the Association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago Paramus, N.J., October 7, 2002 — The National Association for Printing Leadership, the trade association for the commercial printing industry, has installed seven new directors to its Board. The newly named Board members, all industry leaders, were inducted during the Association’s annual meeting, held at the Four Seasons in Chicago, on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2002. Joining the NAPL Board of Directors are Gregory S. D’Amico, director, Graphic Communications Management & Technology, New York University, New York; Louis Finger, president and CEO, Omega Printing, Inc., Bensenville, Ill.; Laura Gale, senior VP and chief sales and integration officer, priNexus, Norcross, Ga.; David Pitts, co-owner, Classic Graphics, Inc., Charlotte, N.C.; Dick Westfall, president, Patented Printing, Inc., Dayton, Ohio; Jeffrey White, director, International and Central U.S. Region Sales Operations, PrintCafe Software, Inc., Naperville, Ill.; and Nigel Worme, managing director, COT Caribbean Graphics, Christ Church, Barbados. Two of the new NAPL Board members, Laura Gale and Jeffrey White, served as officers of the Research and Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts Industry, Inc., now the R&E Council of NAPL. As a result of that organization’s merger with NAPL in September, Gale and White continue as officers of the Council’s steering committee and become Board members of NAPL. "I’m confident our new Board members will play a significant role in helping move the Association forward on its mission of service to members," said NAPL Board Chairman James W. Hyder, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Fetter Printing Company, Louisville, Ky. "I’m extremely happy to welcome them." "The leadership and the energy exhibited by these new directors will be a huge asset to NAPL," noted I. Gregg Van Wert, NAPL president and chief executive officer. "Along with our chairman, Jim Hyder, and our current Board members, they form a particularly strong and dedicated Board." Following are bios on the new members of the NAPL Board of Directors. Gregory S. D’Amico, Ph.D., director, Graphic Communications Management and Technology, New York University, New York. In addition to his duties as director of the Graphic Communications Management and Technology Department at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education, Greg D’Amico teaches graduate level courses in operations management, estimating, and human resources management. He has also held industry positions in production operations, estimating, and quality control. He is a consultant to the industry and specializes in management training seminars and motivational workshops, and is a popular speaker at industry seminars. D’Amico recently authored his first book, Customer-Centered Production, published by NAPL. He is also a professional jazz musician, performing throughout the world. Louis Finger, president and CEO, Omega Printing, Inc., Bensenville, Ill. Louis Finger founded Omega Printing in 1979. The company, a half-size sheetfed printing operation focusing on short run four-six-color collateral material, mailing, and fulfillment, was inducted in the NAPL Management Plus Hall of Fame in 1991. That same year, Finger launched OutSource, Inc., a facility management company with sites at the University of Notre Dame and Precious Moments. He attended Western Illinois University, with a major in Industrial Technology and a minor in Business. Finger, who earned a CFME designation from NAPL’s Management Institute, is a member of the Association’s prestigious Soderstrom Society and Management Plus Society. Laura Gale, senior vice president, and chief sales and integration officer, priNexus, Norcross, Ga. As senior vice president and chief sales and integration officer for priNexus, Laura Gale is responsible for developing and executing a robust solution selling capability across the priNexus network of divisions, as well as leading integration activity when new companies join priNexus. Prior to joining priNexus, Gale, who has more than 20 years of senior executive experience, was vice president, production technology, in the Global Production & Manufacturing Group of International Thomson Publishing. She has also served as executive vice president of the Digital Division of World Color Press, and has held senior positions at Rand Mc Nally, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, and Applied Graphics Technologies. In 1999, Gale was inducted into the Production Executive’s Hall of Fame, and received the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation’s Naomi Berber Memorial Award, bestowed to a woman who has made a major contribution to the graphic communications industries. Gale, who has been president of the Research and Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts Industry (now the R&E Council of NAPL), is also a member of the Nonpareil Society, a member of the boards of the Web Offset Association and the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, on the advisory boards of the Rochester Institute of Technology and the School of Graphic Communications Management at New York University, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of Chicago. She earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees at the University of Illinois. David Pitts, co-owner, Classic Graphics, Inc., Charlotte, N.C. David Pitts has been involved with printing and the printing industry since his high school days in Bowling Green, Ky., where we won statewide recognition for his work in the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. Pitts pursued a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, paying for his education by working as a press operator at a printing company. In 1983, he co-founded Classic Graphics with partner Bill Gardner. To make it through those early days, the partners both worked full time at Classic Graphics and held part-time jobs at night, Pitts as a press operator at another printing company. Classic Graphics, with facilities in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., and 2001 sales of approximately $20 million, has since developed into a leading company in the industry. Pitts’ passion for computers and technology keeps the company at the leading edge of new developments. Pitts currently serves as Area Director for The Printing Industry of the Carolinas (PICA) and has served as a PICA board member since 1991. He has served as an advisors to the Central Piedmont Community College Graphics Program and the Graphic Arts Imaging and Technology Program at Appalachian State University. Dick Westfall, president, Patented Printing, Inc., Dayton, Ohio. Dick Westfall purchased Patented Printing in 1985, after working in several different industries, including banking. He dedicated himself to the printing industry full-time nearly a decade later, after selling most of the other 17 companies that he and a silent partner had purchased or started over the past 18 years. Under Westfall’s leadership, Patented Printing has never had a year in which it lost money and only one where sales decreased. With current annual sales of $11 million and a full range of services, including mailing and digital printing, Patented Printing was chosen as one of the fastest growing companies in southwest Ohio in 2001. That same year, Westfall was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Dayton, Ohio. He is active in civic groups that support the arts, the YMCA, and an educational foundation that deals with domestic violence. Jeffrey White, director of International and Central U.S. Region Sales Operations, PrintCafe Software Inc., Naperville, Ill. Before assuming his current position as director of International and Central U.S. Region Sales Operations at PrintCafe Software Inc., which provides print management software for printers and print buyers in the printing and publishing industry, White held a number of positions within the PrintCafe/Logic Associates group, including managing director of Logic Covalent UK in the late 1990s. He has been involved in the graphic arts industry since his early childhood, when he apprenticed in his father’s printing operation in New York City. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Printing Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1980, and a Master of Science in Computer Systems Management from Rennsselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1986. After graduating from RIT, he joined The Travelers Companies in Hartford, CT., where he served in a variety of positions within its Printing Center and IT Division, including IT manager. He left the company in 1992, to join Logic Associates as Western Regional Sales manager. White has been a member of the executive committee of the Research and Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts (now the R&E Council of NAPL) for the past eight years, serving most recently as VP/secretary. Nigel Worme, managing director, COT Caribbean Graphics, Christ Church, Barbados. Nigel Worme’s father founded COT Printery in 1975, operating from the cellar of their house. Four years later, in 1979, the company relocated to a 6,000-sq.-ft. building nearby. That same year, the younger Worme, just 19 years old at the time, assumed responsibility for running the business and has done so for the past 23 years. During his tenure, COT Caribbean Graphics (the name was changed in 1999 after acquiring its largest competitor) has evolved into a state-of-the-art, high-technology graphic imaging firm. Now occupying a 32,000-sq.-ft., facility, the firm is one of the leading graphic arts communications providers in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, serving more than 12 territories.