January 17, 2003 -- On December 9, Ron Nash, vice president of Customer Service, assumed an additional role: member of the board of directors for the International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance). Ron joins a board that reads like a Who’s Who of the Fortune 500, with members from numerous prestigious international companies. “We’re grateful to have expertise across the publishing industries on the IDEAlliance board of directors,” said David Steinhardt, IDEAlliance CEO. “Our membership is composed of diversified interests — digital media, printing and information technologies — all focused on publishing.” IDEAlliance is a not-for-profit organization and has been a leader in information technology since 1966. Its mission is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes. It expects to achieve these goals by developing standards, fostering business alliances and identifying best practices. One of IDEAlliance’s current projects is the development and implementation of a set of standard electronic transaction formats that can be used globally by all parties engaged in the buying, selling and distribution of paper and forest products. Quad has been an active participant in this global initiative, which is known as papiNet. In fact, it was Ron’s interest in the papiNet initiative that precipitated our involvement. “There’s a lot of buzz today about supply chain management and how time and cost can be eliminated from the process,” Ron said. “But it’s mostly been talk to this point. There have been very few initiatives focused on improving the overall health of our industry or its asset holders. IDEAlliance is changing that. I believe the establishment of global standards as a way to integrate communication and processes across multiple partners is the best way to lay the groundwork for real improvement in our marketplace.” Ron has plenty of experience to bring to the board. His main focus at Quad is on improving print quality and customer responsiveness while reducing overall print production turnaround time. He acts as our chief process integrator, facilitating the means by which clients can fully integrate their workflow with ours. In addition to this expertise, Ron feels he’ll help add balance to the IDEAlliance board. “In the past, the organization and the board have been skewed to one industry segment or the other and the printing community has been underrepresented,” he said. “Since we’re the confluence where all the other businesses converge, I feel we should be represented accordingly.” The inauguration for Ron and the other newly elected board members was held in conjunction with the IDEAlliance XML Conference and Exposition in Baltimore.