Warrendale, PA - Printing Industries of America (PIA) is pleased to announce that Julie McFarland, President of McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., has been named the 2016 Naomi Berber Memorial Award recipient. McFarland’s award will be presented at the 2016 PIA Fall Administrative Meeting on November 18, 2016, in Kansas City, MO. This award honors outstanding women in the graphic communications industry for their exceptional record of accomplishments, extraordinary contributions toward the development of the graphic communications industry, and for having advanced the interests of the industry.

Jim Clark, director of operations at McNaughton & Gunn, Inc. nominated McFarland for the Naomi Berber award in recognition of her extensive work with community programs and her commitment to McNaughton and Gunn, Inc., and its employees. “When she makes a decision, it has been thought out and all the facts have been considered. She brought our business out of the recession with new vigor, new ways of doing business, new methods of measuring performance, and justifying how and why we do things, while maintaining our Lean organization. Julie is not only a great listener, she asks all the right questions, and sometimes those are the tough questions, the ones that make us better as an organization,” stated Clark.
 
In 1975, Bob McNaughton, Ms. McFarland’s father, began McNaughton & Gunn, Inc. in Saline, MI. At the age of 16, McFarland started out answering the company’s phones but she soon rose through the ranks and moved into production, estimating, and accounting. McFarland was named Chief Operating Officer in 1992 and Chief Executive Officer in 1994. She was named President in 2012 after her father stepped down.
 
In addition to leading her business, she has been Treasurer and a board member of the Ann Arbor Graphic Arts Memorial Foundation for the past 14 years; has served as Treasurer and as a finance committee member of Washtenaw Literacy, an organization that promotes adult literacy; and is Past-President and a continuing supporter of the Saline Area Chamber of Commerce. She also spearheaded the initiative to make McNaughton & Gunn, Inc. a certified Woman Owned Business after her father’s retirement. McFarland was also named one of Business Direct Weekly’s Most Influential Women in 2003 and received the 2016 Ben Franklin Award from the Michigan Printing Week Association.