DES PLAINES, IL, Apr 07, 2008 -- Schawk, Inc., one of the world's leading providers of visual brand management solutions to the consumer products packaging industry, announced today that it has appointed Ken Kauppila to the position of chief information officer (CIO), responsible for overseeing the company's global information technology (IT) strategy and the operation of all supporting IT infrastructure and applications.

"Ken Kauppila's demonstrated experience in managing sophisticated information technology environments to support and drive strategic business objectives will be an invaluable asset to Schawk," noted David A. Schawk, president and chief executive officer. "Ken's impressive background makes for an extraordinarily good match with the growing needs of our organization to help companies of all sizes deliver consistent and compelling brand experiences."

Kauppila's 20 plus years of experience in information technology is both deep and broad. His background includes playing strategic business leadership roles in both centralized and decentralized organizations, and his technical experience includes enterprise-level information technology optimization of critical areas of information technology, including architecture/infrastructure, application/systems development, eCommerce, operations, telecommunications (voice/data), service desk, customer experience, and organizational efficiency.

Kauppila's notable track record includes participation in domestic and international mergers and acquisitions transactions where he performed due diligence and developed and led IT integration plans; management of an Asia-based worldwide distribution and logistics network; initiation of industry-first customer relationship management programs; design and development of one of the world's largest relational databases; and development of market observation and analyses tools to provide competitive advantage and enhanced visibility to changing market conditions.

"I am excited about the opportunity to bring strategic business value to Schawk and its clients by applying information technology intelligence to the many 'pain points' challenging all businesses today," said Kauppila. "Applying the right processes and technology will allow us to compete simultaneously on the competitive dimensions of cycle time to market and quality, which will, in turn, drive lower total cost of ownership and result in higher business value. Harnessing the 'data' within a company by turning it into 'actionable information' and delivering it across the global network to the decision makers provides extraordinary strategic value to any business."

Prior to his appointment at Schawk, Kauppila worked in the business services, retail, healthcare and chemical industries. Most recently, he served as corporate vice president and chief information officer at The Bradford Group, and also at Hammacher Schlemmer, a worldwide leader in direct marketing. Previous experience also includes tenure in the service divisions at Experian Information Services, Baxter International, MedPartners, and Ashland Chemical.

Throughout his career, Kauppila and his teams have been singled out for numerous awards including the IBM Technology Executive Council Award, the IBM International Information Technology Award, the Winter Corporation Annual Database Scalability Awards, the Data Warehouse Institute Best Practices in Data Warehousing First Place Award for CRM, RealWare Awards, Quality Awards and multiple CEO Executive Achievement Awards. He has also spoken at International Technology Conferences on various topics.

Kauppila holds a Master of Business Administration in Supply Chain Operations, Logistics Management and Information Systems from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from Michigan Technological University.

Kauppila is a member of Association of Information Technology Professionals, CIO Executive Network, Society of Information Management, and the Direct Marketing Association. He resides in the Chicago area with his wife and four children.