April 15, 2003 -- Print On Demand magazine, the only magazine exclusively dedicated to growing the print on demand market, has named Royal Impressions’ President & Co-Founder Christopher DeSantis and Scitex Digital Printing’s President & CEO Nachum "Homi" Shamir, Print On Demand Pioneer Award Winners for 2003. The award is presented to printing industry leaders that have made significant strides in the industry and helped grow the market in new and unique ways. "Our Pioneer Award Winners have raised the bar for all leaders in the print on demand industry with their commitment to their growing customer needs," says Group Publisher Jann Levesque. "It’s through their tireless devotion to this industry that has assisted in its growth and innovation." Mr. DeSantis is president and co-founder of Royal Impressions, a digital printing firm located in Manhattan. Working with partner Tom Sepanski, he founded the company as a print brokerage firm. In 1991, Royal Impressions began to manufacture some of its printing. Mr. DeSantis steered the firm to creative, database and IT services, laying the groundwork for the company’s digital printing’s future in variable data. Recently, the company was used as an alpha test facility for the Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press, receiving the first such machine installed at a Xerox customer site in New York City. Mr. DeSantis and his wife, Lisa, are actively involved in community projects, including Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the AIG SunAmerica K.I.D.S. program. He also continues the work of his late father, Carmine DeSantis, in the "Gift of Limbs" program, which provides critical aid to children who have had limbs amputated in war atrocities and leads the Carmine DeSantis Foundation, established to provide assistance to children with special needs. Nachum "Homi" Shamir, is president and CEO of Scitex Digital Printing Inc., a leading provider of ultra-high-speed, 100-percent variable data, digital color printing. Among his many notable achievements in the digital printing field he led in developing the firm’s "Business Color" technology, which is aimed at making color digital printing affordable and practical for the corporate community. His work has led to the commercialization of Scitex Digital Printing’s VersaMark and VersaMark Vantage products. Mr. Shamir joined Scitex Digital Printing in 1993 as managing director of the Asia-Pacific and Japan region with its offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1990, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1980. He is actively involved in industry associations, and community and academic boards, with a special interest in educational excellence in science and technology. Print On Demand Pioneer Awards were presented at 11:30 a.m. on April 9, following the Wednesday keynote of the On Demand Digital Printing & Publishing Conference at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.