Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, – TAGA, The Technical Association of the Graphic Arts, has appointed a new president, and a number of new board members who are key industry and academic leaders from the ranks of the top companies and technical universities in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Paul Cousineau, TAGA's new president, is director of innovation and continuous improvement for Dow Jones and Company, whose print publications include The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and the New York Post. He serves on the Graphic Communications advisory board and Journalism task force at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where in 2009 he was named honored alumnus of the year by the College of Liberal Arts. His experience includes 34 years in the printing industry, including 25 years with Dow Jones and Company in various capacities within the production organization.

Cousineau speaks of how his career began with TAGA, "My first exposure to TAGA was while attending Cal Poly. With the support of Dr. Harvey Levenson, a small group of students chartered the first TAGA Student Chapter and published the first student technical journal." As his career progressed, he found TAGA to be valuable to his employers and his own work. "Dow Jones has benefited from the unique research presented through TAGA. We have been able to either forego or implement technologies that have resulted in economical and repeatable high quality manufacturing performance," Cousineau explained.

Newly elected TAGA officers include:

Dr. Don Duncan, of Wikoff Color Corporation, was elected Executive Vice President.
Hal Stratton of Komori America Corporation was elected Secretary/Treasurer.

Continuing as officers are:

Prof. Bjorn Kruse of Linkoping University, serving as Immediate Past President; Dr. Martin Habekost of Ryerson University, serving as Vice President, Education; Dr. Alexandra Pekarovicova of Western Michigan University, serving as Vice President, Technical Papers; John Sweeney of FineEye Color Solutions, serving as Vice President, Membership and Publicity.

New Board members include:

Brian Lawler of California Polytechnic State University, William Li of Eastman Kodak Company, Rick Riegger of Japs-Olson Company, and Dr. Yu-Ju (Mandy) Wu of Appalachian State University.

Continuing on the TAGA board of directors are Ghilad Dziesietnik of EFI, Inc., Chuck Gehman of Mimeo.com, Dr. Yung-Cheng Hsieh of National Taiwan University of the Arts, Eugene Langlais of Capricorn Research, Dr. Liam O'Hara of Clemson University, David Niles of Sappi Fine Paper North America, John Seymour of QuadTech, and Erwin Widmer of Ugra.

In summarizing the election and the year ahead, Cousineau said, "As our industry changes, TAGA provides a forum for publishing, presenting, and promoting independent research. The next few years will be challenging for the TAGA Board as we work through the economic pressures of these times. The current board includes representation from the education, research, and business fields. I believe this is a healthy balance that provides provocative discussions and is critical to maintaining and growing TAGA for the future."

Next year's technical conference is March 18-21, 2012:

Hyatt Regency Jacksonville-Riverfront
225 E Coastline Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32202

For detailed information about becoming an individual member of TAGA (which is only $125 per year for a full professional membership), about sponsoring student activities at next year's conference, or regarding joining industry leading companies like Dow Jones and Company; Eastman Kodak Company; EFI, Inc.; FineEye Color Solutions; Flint Group, manroland, Inc. North America; Mimeo.com; Printing Industries of America; and Sappi Fine Paper North America as corporate sponsors, contact Jessica Meyers, [email protected], at the TAGA office.