In-plant Profiles

A lifelong printer, Tony Torone not only loves his trade, but he loves the fact that his work is helping paralyzed veterans. by W. Eric Martin Tony Torone loves his job as manager of the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association's in-plant. He gets along great with his employees, he knows he's giving his clients—and his clients' clients—valuable service, and he works only 10 minutes from the house he shares with his wife of 32 years. He's spent more than 40 years in the printing industry, and he would do it all over again in a second. Jealous yet? Torone's love of printing is infectious—which makes

The International Publishing Management Association has honored several in-plants with awards: • Portland General Electric was named this year's Management Award winner. • First National Bank of Omaha has earned the Mail Center of the Year title. • The University of Nevada-Las Vegas won top honors for In-house Promotional Excellence. Awards will be presented in June at the IPMA 2002 conference, in Atlanta.

IPMA's former international president, Carol Kraft, has been hired as the association's new COO. She says the group must be ready to change in order to survive. by Bob Neubauer It's taken almost three years but the International Publishing Management Association has a new chief operating officer at last. And the biggest surprise to many may be how familiar she is. Fresh from her very recent retirement from Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota, former IPMA International President Carol Kraft has been appointed IPMA's full-time COO. She fills the position last held by IPMA Executive Director Larry Aaron, who left IPMA in 1999. The

Mike George has brought many changes to Villanova University Graphic Services over the past three years—replacing analog copiers in campus departments with connected, multifunctional devices, adding direct-to-plate services—but the biggest impact on the in-plant's future will likely be the introduction of T/R Systems' Digital StoreFront. "There had been a lot of concern on the students' part because we weren't offering students a place to print. They had to go to Kinko's," says George, director of Graphic Services. "We had pushed [the teachers' syllabi] out to the Web over the past two years and told students they could print it out themselves—but the university wanted

In-plants serving non-profit organizations are passionate about their organizations' missions. by Cheryl Adams What's the biggest difference between corporate in-plants and those of non-profit organizations? Besides the obvious (lower salaries and fewer funds for new equipment), there's one very unique and powerful distinction: dedication to the mission. Corporate in-plants contribute to the bottom line of their parent companies' profitability. Non-profit in-plants contribute to the greater good of mankind. "I want to be known as a peacemaker. I want to give someone a helping hand and give them a better chance in life. I want to build rather than destroy," declares Mike Chapman, manager of

For Warren Fraser, there's a certain magic about living so far away from the rest of the country. "I can look out my office window and see the Alaska Range," says Fraser, manager of Printing Services at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. "If you want to be [in a place] with clean air and wilderness close at hand, but still live in a city that has a university and has cultural offerings...then there are some advantages

A few weeks ago I was out in Seattle, where my wife had been invited to speak at a conference. I took advantage of the trip to visit with several in-plant managers in that part of the world. This is the best part of the job, when I get to meet some of the people I've been writing about. Take Paul Katz and his comrades, for instance. Last month I wrote an article about the informal association of Washington school district in-plant managers to which Paul belongs. While in Seattle, I got to meet all those managers and attend one of their

From his humble beginnings in Alaska, Larry Jablinske has worked his way through a very technology-focused industry. by CHERYL ADAMS When SAFECO Publishing Services won Best of Show in In-Print 2000—the very first time it entered the contest—no one was more pleased than Larry Jablinske, assistant director. The honor was just one more milestone in Jablinske's long career. Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, Jablinske saw lots of snow, muddy roads and long summer nights. When his family moved from its log home in the woods to Seattle in the early 1960s, nine-year-old Larry quickly took to life on the Puget Sound. Over the years,

Pat Seier has dedicated more than 20 years to making her in-plant an integral part in the success of Kutak Rock, an Omaha-based law firm. by BOB NEUBAUER Patricia Seier never planned on working in the printing industry. She was only looking for a better-paying job when she took a position in the mail room of Kutak Rock, an Omaha, Neb.-based law firm. But after working there just a few years, fate intervened. "Mr. Kutak asked me if I would be interested in heading up their copy center," Seier recalls. "I had absolutely no background in printing." She learned fast. Over the

If it has anything to do with paper, Printing Services at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is likely in charge of it. by Caroline Miller AT THE University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Printing Services has found a simple path to rich rewards: "We are trying to follow the paper," says Printing Services Director Geoff Bant. "We try to diversify as much as we can. We don't want to just be a printer or just a copying place. We try to be a lot of everything. The campus needs all sorts of things; the challenge is to provide these services without losing money." The university is