PRINTING United Alliance Celebrates New Inductees, Award Recipients

PRINTING United Alliance, the most comprehensive member-based printing and graphic arts association in the U.S., held its virtual ceremony to welcome the newest inductees to the Academy of Screen and Digital Printing Technologies (ASDPT) on Nov. 10. Inductees from 2020 and 2021 were welcomed in during the event, and the 2020 and 2021 recipients of the Joe Clarke innovator Awards were also honored.

Marci Kinter, vice president – government & regulatory affairs for PRINTING United Alliance and secretary for the ASDPT, opened the ceremony along with Laura Maybaum, director of product marketing at Nazdar and current chair at the Academy.

Kicking things off was the announcement of the 2020 ASDPT inductees, which are:

• Marshall Atkinson, Atkinson Consulting
• Roberto Gonzalez Ojeda, Ultrasol Inks
• Ray Weiss, PRINTING United Alliance

“I appreciate the honor of being included in the academy,” said Atkinson. “I really look forward to a lifelong contribution to the group. Congratulations to all of the other inductees!”

The 2021 inductees were also announced during the virtual event:

• Mick Orr, IKONICS Corporation
• Jim Raffel, ColorCasters

“I’m looking forward to getting to work … and seeing where all of it goes,” said Raffel.

The second half of the ceremony was dedicated to honoring the inaugural recipients of the Joe Clarke Innovator Award. “Joe was an unbelievable individual and prolific innovator … Joe engineered and patented so many inventions in his life, and that’s why we created this award,” Maybaum said.

The award is given to those who exhibit the Joe Clarke spirit of innovation through inventing or renovating existing products, processes, or methodologies, and have shared the knowledge, products, or methodologies with the public. Qualifying nominees’ contributions must be widely accepted and in use at the time of the nomination.

The 2020 recipients are:

• Mark Coudray, “Business Innovation and Software Technology”
• Geoff McCue, “Innovation in Screen Printing Technology”

“I’m so honored to receive this award,” Coudray said. “Joe was a special friend and collaborator, and an amazing individual.”

The 2021 recipients of the award are:

• Thorsten Braun, Color-Logic, “Business Innovation and Software Technology”
• Paul Edwards, EFI, “Digital Printing Innovation”

“I want to add our congratulations to everyone,” said Kinter during the final minutes of the ceremony. “I’m looking forward to the next gathering in October at PRINTING United in Las Vegas.”

Academy members are active industry professionals who provide technical education, consultation, adjudication of printing image quality, and promotion of the industry’s technical and commercial development. For more information about the group, visit sgia.org/about/academy.