FSEA Announces New Board Members

FSEA has announced the election of three new board members that were ratified by the current FSEA Board of Directors and voted upon at the recent FSEA Annual Meeting during the FSEA/IADD Joint Conference in Franklin, Tennessee. Gene Petrie, manufacturing resource leader, Hallmark Cards Inc., has been added to the board as a new Active board member. Petrie has 29 years of experience at Hallmark in the manufacturing and packaging of its greeting cards line and is located at its Greetings Production Facility in Lawrence, Kansas. Chris Eckhart, president of Eckhart & Co., Inc., has been elected into the newly formed Bindery/Loose Leaf position on the board. Eckhart’s company provides bookbinding/finishing service and the manufacturing of custom packaging products. Eckart & Co. is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Scott Tacosik, product manager for KURZ Transfer Products, will fill the open Associate (Supplier) position on the board. Tacosik has more than 24 years of experience in the printing, packaging, and finishing industry. He currently manages the product line of graphic stamping foils, technical support resources, and research and development strategy for KURZ out of Charlotte, North Carolina.

New FSEA Executive Board Positions Announced

With the addition of new board members and the completion of Matt Seidl’s term as chairman, new executive board positions where announced by the FSEA Board of Directors. Mark Baugh, president of D.E. Baugh Co., Inc., (Indianapolis, Indiana), steps into the chairman of the board position. He is the first ever second-term chairman for FSEA. Greg Greenwald, president/CEO of Scarab Printing Arts (St. Charles, Missouri) will move into the chairman-elect position and JohnHenry Ruggieri, president of SunDance Marketing Solutions (Orlando, Florida) will take over as the new secretary/treasurer.

FSEA Announces New Binding and Loose Leaf Division

FSEA has announced the formation of a new division specifically focused on binding and loose leaf processes. This new division has been developed to support bindery and loose leaf operations in the graphic arts industry.

“As we see continued consolidation within the printing industry – and with many of our current FSEA members already involved with binding and finishing processes – this was a natural step forward for FSEA,” said Jeff Peterson, executive director.

Benefits provided to new members of the FSEA’s Binding and Loose Leaf Division will include access to statistical surveys in the “Members Only” section on the FSEA website. An email-driven community (the Binding/Loose Leaf HelpLinks) will be developed specifically for those working in binderies and loose leaf provider companies to share questions and challenges. Members of the new division will be listed in the printed FSEA Sourcebook of Active and Associate (Supplier) members, and will have its own section for bindery and loose leaf services in the online sourcebook, www.FinisherFinder.com.

In addition, members of the new division will receive access to financial benefits, including the Grainger discount program, which provides discounts on all Grainger products; shipping discounts, including up to 29 percent on FedEx shipping and over 70 percent on LTL freight shipments; and Printers 401k, a collaboration of 401k specialists (powered by Diversified Financial Advisors) who assume specific fiduciary duties for member companies’ retirement plans.

For more information on the new Binding and Loose Leaf Division of FSEA, call the FSEA office at 785.271.5816, email jeff@fsea.com, or visit www.fsea.com.

In Memory…

Robert N. Gallagher, age 79, of De Soto, Kansas, passed away on April 2, 2018. Gallagher served on the inaugural board of directors of FSEA as secretary/treasurer from 1992-1995. In 1996, Gallagher served as chairman of FSEA. Gallagher was born in Kansas City, Kansas on February 14, 1939. He met his wife, Arlice, at the University of Kansas in 1960 and they were married in 1962. In 1967, he and Harvey C. Ray purchased Ace Box and Die, Inc. They soon branched out into foil stamping and embossing and added diemaking in-house with the addition of DieMasters in 1988. In 1992, Ray sold his share to Gallagher, who became the sole owner of Ace Inc. With the help of his son-in-law, Marty, Gallagher designed a quickchange foil system for the Bobst 102. It allowed the foil rolls to be pre-set with the proper spacing for quick changeover when new foil was needed. In 2002, he sold the company and retired to his small farm in De Soto. Gallagher loved his family and was interested in all the doings of the grandchildren. He is survived by his wife, Arlice, four children, 19 grandchildren (another grandchild preceded him in death) and 8 great grandchildren.