Opening remarks by: Brittany Onslow, Conference Producer, Smithers
Sean Smyth has spent over 25 years in the industry in senior technology positions for a variety of print businesses across the supply chain, in hands on and consultancy roles. He helps companies make money through the appropriate use of technology.
Sean has a deep knowledge of the global print market, and a key member of the team providing quantitative market data and forecasts for the printing, paper and packaging industry. He authors off-the-shelf market studies and provides strategic consultancy services to a range of clients across the value chain.
Sean has a strong background in appropriate application of technology to print, implementing digital print systems, MIS and workflows to take time and cost out of the print supply chain. In 1994 he became Technical Director of Rexam, where the first colour digital presses in the UK were installed and he has extensive experience of digital printing. He has written many books and market studies on the future, print technology and digital print, including Smithers' flagship title "The Print & Production Manual" and the "Future of Global Print Markets".
A dangerously creative multifunctional translator, Keenan is known for his ability to bridge the gap between commercial and technical teams, helping them understand each other’s needs, constraints, and eventually unlocking solutions that work for both. From diapers to beer, you can find his handprints on many global brands and product portfolios including: Kleenex, Huggies, Depend, Poise, Cottonelle, Colgate, Stella, Budweiser, Corona, Ultra and Bud Light.
Keenan’s experience in various functional roles helps him bring fresh perspective, challenging industries.
Brent Lindberg is annoying, and he knows it. It’s more than just the corny jokes and odd quirks. With a curiosity that rivals George, Brent has the habit of relentlessly asking questions like a 5-year-old. He also has an obnoxious appetite for the unexpected (as anyone who’s seen his wardrobe can tell you).
Together these traits produce an unorthodox approach to structural packaging design which has built a culture at Fuseneo, the creative studio he started. And somehow, it seems to be working. Their incessant inquisition and boundary-pushing has been reshaping packaging experiences across retail and e-commerce for more than a decade.
Shoshana Burgett is an industry strategist and founder of Pink Elephant Productions, a consulting firm that helps medium and large organizations incorporate Voice of the Customer into their company’s product portfolio, delivering practical, actionable insights that create a compelling marketing message and strategy that grows market share and revenue. With over two decades of experience in on-demand printing, manufacturing, and personalization, Shoshana has been at the forefront of personalized production and omnichannel communications, serving as a senior executive at X-Rite, Pantone, and Xerox. Today, she shares trends, insights and more on Colorkarma, a media platform for designers.
Jeff Jacobs is a marketing executive at ePac Flexible Packaging leading national and international digital, strategy, and partnership efforts.
He has nearly 20 years experience working in a variety of marketing, branding, and design agencies with some of the leading CPG, grocery store, and technology companies in the world including brands like Whole Foods, Samsung, Publix, Walmart, Frito Lay, Gatorade, and Stacies.
Jeff has spent the majority of his career developing brands, packaging, advertising campaigns, and creating in-store experiences before moving client-side to an established CPG brand prior to his current role at ePac. He has also worked and consulted with startups across the country and is an advisor and investor to a number of CPG startups.
He works with brands to help develop their brand positioning, packaging, and go-to-market plans while helping brands to avoid the hazards of the startup environment.
Kerry Drake has 30 plus years in the Creative Consumer Products Packaging and Point of Purchase Display industry. For the past 19 years has been delivering technology products to both packaging and consumer products companies that offer traditional design tools to non-designers.
Ed Wiegand is the President of JetFx Inc. a new print engine technology company delivering digital printing embellishments globally to multiple markets and platforms. His service of 32 years of iconic Global Brands in the packaging and print industry provide the experience and knowledge to innovate solutions for the challenges facing the industry. Ed Wiegand cur-rently holds five (5) U.S. patents on technologies directly related to the packaging & label industries
Ed served as Executive Vice President of Sancoa International & TubeDec LLC (a world class label and tube manufacturer) managing top accounts that included Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson and others. He led the global expansion strategy with the com-pany’s chairman and spear headed new developments in technology.
Biography Coming Soon
Douglas Bugner received his B.S. in Chemistry from The Ohio State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UCLA. He has over 35 years of experience at Eastman Kodak Company researching, developing and commercializing inks and coatings for both electrophotography and inkjet printing systems. Since 2006, he has led the advanced development and commercialization of the pigmented inks and co-optimized paper and film treatments for Kodak’s high-speed continuous inkjet presses. He is currently Director, Materials R&D, Digital Print, Eastman Kodak Company. He holds 69 U.S. Patents and has authored over 50 scientific publications.
Susan E Bailey, Business Development Manager, Specialty and Digital Print, Michelman
Susan Bailey has a wide-angle view of high-speed inkjet presses from raw materials and printhead construction to formulated systems and press side applications. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. At Hewlett Packard, she first experienced the fundamentals of inkjet systems in imprint and specialty printing markets. Through the development of semi-conductor processing at Brewer Science and raw material design at IGM Resins, Susan saw firsthand how the individual component level decisions drive performance and market reach for inkjet application. Since joining Michelman in 2018, Susan has promoted primer and tailored aqueous overprint coatings with OEM and integration partners to provide inkjet press owners robust system solutions that offer confidence to expand their press use and inkjet applications in the print marketplace. Susan currently serves the industry presently as President of RadTech International North America.
Genara Andrade, Americas New Business Development Leader for DuPont Industrial Solutions, is responsible for identifying new opportunities requiring innovative solutions that build on the core capabilities of the Artistri® Digital Ink, Cyrel® Solutions, and Display Materials businesses. Prior to assuming the NBD role Genara led technical teams developing aqueous ink solutions for the Artistri® Digital Ink product line. Genara holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jeff Peterson is the Executive Director of the Foil & Specialty Effects Association and Managing Editor of PostPress Magazine, a quarterly publication covering graphic finishing and bindery techniques, including foil stamping, embossing, die cutting, UV coating, perfect and mechanical binding, folding, and more.
Jeff has 30 years of experience in the foil stamping & embossing industry and has conducted numerous seminars on the subject for various trade shows and conferences, including PRINT, Graph Expo, Printing United, IADD-FSEA Odyssey, and others. He is also an accomplished writer, responsible for many technical articles in PostPress as well as in other industry magazines and publications.
James Bullington, Professional Engineer, is the chief technology officer (CTO). He joined LSINC in 2012 as director of engineering and was then promoted to vice president of engineering, prototyping and manufacturing.
As CTO, Bullington develops key relationships to advance growth in niche markets and focus on innovation in technology areas. He also is responsible for ensuring protection of the company’s intellectual property as it pertains to engineering and product development.
Bullington, who holds more than eleven patents, is a Professional Engineer with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and deep experience in product engineering devices from electronic enclosures the size of a business card to flight simulators 27 feet tall.
His background includes extensive work in thermal and structural analysis, molded design, conceptualization of new products, electronics integration, manufacturing enablement, minimizing production costs, and mechanical engineering.
Chris is currently the Commercial Lead and Product Development Manager for Georgia-Pacific Digital Print Solutions. He has over 30 years’ experience in gravure, flexo and offset pre-press, print tooling and print for packaging. Chris has been instrumental in the development of product offerings, paper testing and design and pre-press standards for digital inkjet print for packaging. He has been on the ground floor with GP and their implementation of the first HP T400 and now the first and only HP T1100 in North America. Chris leads a team of Creative, Design and Print professionals to bring solutions to the consumer packaging market.
Creative product developer with broad digital textile print experience leveraging industry expertise for e-commerce, manufacturing, and brand activations. Passionate about user experience, technology exploration, and sustainable growth. Currently exploring the development and support of digital textile printing equipment for the decorator/finished goods market. Previous roles include R&D at Spoonflower, Innovation at Nike, and Product Specialist at TegraGlobal.
Bio Coming Soon
Clay Oliff is the President//CEO at Polytype America Corporation, with responsibility for the sales, service and support of customers using decorating equipment being deployed in the rigid plastic container markets in North America. Joining Polytype America in 2012 as the Director of Sales, he spent the first six years focusing on growing market share and introducing new digital technologies from Polytype. Prior to joining Polytype America, he spent over 30 years in the commercial printing/packaging industry in various positions from operational to senior management, ultimately forging his path to technical sales positions for manufacturers and suppliers. Notable is his 10 years at manroland where he directed technical sales for the North American sheet fed division.
Biography coming soon.
Lloyd brings to Domino over 30 years of experience. His career includes roles as sales development manager, national & regional sales manager, and regional market director. Companies fortunate to have had Lloyd on their team over the past 20+ years include EFI, HP, and Bobst in which he was responsible for sales of digital and traditional corrugated printing machinery. Prior to that, Lloyd spent 12 years at Diagraph, providing coding, marking & labeling solutions to brand owners for their products and packaging.
Lloyd’s career in corrugated began with Bobst, where he spent 15 years selling corrugated and folded carton machinery throughout the USA. Over the past 6+ years he has been providing both single-pass and multi-pass digital solutions to the corrugated industry with HP, and most recently EFI.
Lloyd is very involved with AICC where he serves as an Ambassador… introducing new, incoming members to existing AICC members and helping them get acclimated and feel welcomed within the association.
Lloyd’s LinkedIn profile sums up his business focus. “I help corrugated and packaging companies with their transition from traditional flexo printing and litho-lam technologies into single-pass digital printing.”
Michael Brice is a 36-year printing ink industry veteran. He has served in every capacity: lab technician, colormatching, manufacturing, inplant technician and management, sales and senior level management. Mike became Chief Operating Officer of Superior Printing Inks in 2000 and named its President and COO in 2003. He also worked in the energy sector and then for Squid Ink Manufacturing for two years until he joined INX International Ink Company in Nov, 2011. Michael has served INX in a sales capacity as well as organizing and managing INX’s North American distribution effort. Mike was appointed Director of Offset Operations in 2012 and then as Vice President of Offset Operations in 2013. In 2018, Mike became Vice President of Sales and Business Development. Mike has served on various industry boards and organizations. Currently he is a member of Printing United Alliance’s Suppliers and Manufacturers Council.
James is the Director, Innovation Solutions Group with Jones Healthcare Group based in London Ontario Canada, a leader in folding carton, labels and contract pharmaceutical filling. In his role, James focuses on new packaging technologies for tomorrow and their potential impact and outcomes for consumers, patients and brand-owners. James has over 25 years of experience in prepress and print production with organizations such as TC and SGSCO. With successful projects run under a varying set of global verticals throughout his career, James brings a diverse understanding of the packaging market with an eye for reproduction quality under differing print methods. James also serves as a co-chair for IntelliPACK a North American industry association to help accelerate adoption of intelligent packaging products in the marketplace.
Mr. Hoshen is a serial entrepreneur and a hi-tech business development professional with two decades of diverse international experience in building and accelerating technology start-up businesses from the conceptual stage to profitability. Yoav co-founded Water.io, the smart packaging leader, and currently leads the company's business development efforts. Yoav also co-founded Beyond Verbal (emotions, wellness, and mHelath analytics worldwide leader based on the tone of the human voice) and Superb Reality (Virtual and Augmented Reality computer vision solutions). Mr. Hoshen holds an LLB from Tel Aviv University.
Liz Carroll is the Director of Marketing at 1620 Labs, a craft cannabis cultivator located in Athol, MA. In her role, Liz is responsible for helping to build brand recognition for this newly-founded, privately-held company. She handles an array of marketing efforts, including PR, social media, media relations, as well as leading 1620 Labs’ packaging strategy. Liz’s marketing efforts helped the company to be featured in Packaging World for its innovative packaging strategy.