 | Anthony Evans City and County of Swansea |  | Graham Lowe Staffordshire County Council |  | Chris James Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead |  | Mark Barlow Blackpool Council | |||
Anthony takes up the role of APCOM president from 2010 to 2012. He has been an active member of APCOM since 2003 and was formerly editor of the magazine, APCOM Secretary and Vice President. In his full time capacity, Anthony is the Manager of the City and County of Swansea, DesignPrint unit, which incorporates graphic design, large format, both digital and litho print processes, transactional printing, management of the council MFD fleet, and a professional print buying service for the authority. Originally trained as a Technical Illustrator and Graphic Designer, Anthony has a broad range of experience spanning 26 years in the print sector. As a graphic designer and studio manager for a 100 year old printing company, Anthony was instrumental in bringing the then new Apple Mac technology to the studio and developing reprographic services around this. He was also a part time lecturer in graphic design and DTP. Anthony moved to the public sector in 2000 bringing commercial experience gained in the private sector to a developing in-plant facility. Anthony has 3 sons, all playing football, rugby, cricket, etc., so spends most weekends on the touch line, and is chairman of the local junior football club.
| Graham is the Finance & Support Services Manager of Print Commissioning Services in Staffordshire County Council and moved to print in 2004, bringing over 20 years experience in local authority trading service management. Graham joined the former Central Print Unit at a time of considerable uncertainty and has overseen projects that have significantly changed printing services in Staffordshire. Most significantly the former print unit was restructured and re-branded resulting in major business improvement and a recent relocation to purpose built premises. Graham often states that APCOM membership has played a major part in Staffordshire’s successes.Print Commissioning Services now provides a successful centralised corporate access point for a diverse range of print services including graphic design, litho, digital, variable data, finishing, procurement and project management. | I am delighted to take over the reigns as Treasurer of APCOM and sincerely hope that I can live up to the excellent work that Christopher Steward has tirelessly undertaken during his tenure. I am relatively new to the Public sector and CRD’s, so therefore extremely keen to get to know this environment in greater detail. I am hoping this position will enable me to hone my skills and learn a great deal from the huge wealth and depth of experience that APCOM members have to offer. Even from my limited time within this sector and having attended the recent APCOM conference in Blackpool, there is no doubt we face significant and continued challenges in the years ahead, so what’s new I hear you say! Well, with the convergence of communication technologies I believe we must start to think differently and adapt to these changes. Darwin’s quote “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change” is as relevant today as it was 150 years ago. I very much look forward to working with everyone to deliver this change, developing a strategic ‘vision for the future’ focused on strengthening and supporting the association and its members. | Mark is the Head of Print and Post Services at Blackpool Corporate Print Services, which incorporates Graphic design, wide format, both digital and litho processes, transactional printing, management of the council MFD fleet, post services and a professional print buying service for the authority. Originally trained as a Computer Graphic Designer, using such diverse software as GEM Ventura, CorelDraw and Paintbrush, Mark has a broad range of experience within the Public Sector and Printing. Initial duties involved Estimating and Accounting, whilst continuing to build on the Design aspects as a sideline, with the onset of new technology the old Compugraphic Editwriter was replaced and a whole new era began. In 1992 Mark became the Manager of Blackpool Council’s Print and Design Service, which had a small staff of 7, this has now grown to 30, incorporating the Post service and a much larger Graphics Team. With well over 24 years local government experience, Mark is well versed in the intricate workings and procedures surrounding In-plant operations within a local authority. Mark has been an active member of APCOM since 2000 and was formerly APCOM President 2008-2010, editor of the magazine, secretary and publicity officer. On a personal note one of Mark’s main passions is Scuba Diving, which he currently teaches in the UK. | |||||||
 | Tony Cartwright Cheshire West and Chester Council |  | Kathie Lock Southwest One |  | Karl Kay North East Lincolnshire Council | |||||
APCOM President 2006-2008, Tony is Print & Reprographics Manager, Cheshire West and Chester Council.
| Kathie Lock is Senior People Development Manager for the People Excellence Service at Southwest One (the joint venture partnership with Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and IBM) and the Leader of the Operational Services Community, which includes Graphic Design, Print Services, Site Services and Administration with over 200 members of this large Community group. | Karl Kay is the Printing Section Manager for North East Lincolnshire Council, a unitary authority with over 6000 employees. Karl has worked in the printing industry exclusively since 1979. In his current role as Print Section Manager he is responsible for a small unit that delivers traditional printing, design, digital print, print finishing and print procurement as well as project managing the ICT print strategy for the wider authority. Karl is qualified in machine printing, originally as a letterpress printer, graphic design, photography and computer programming. He also undertakes training sessions on desktop publishing for staff within the authority, utilising a software package that he has been involved in the development and testing of since 1998. Karl moved to local government in late 1985, his previous role being creative director of a small chain of high street print shops. | Karl Kay is the Printing Section Manager for North East Lincolnshire Council, a unitary authority with over 6000 employees. Karl has worked in the printing industry exclusively since 1979. In his current role as Print Section Manager he is responsible for a small unit that delivers traditional printing, design, digital print, print finishing and print procurement as well as project managing the ICT print strategy for the wider authority. Karl is qualified in machine printing, originally as a letterpress printer, graphic design, photography and computer programming. He also undertakes training sessions on desktop publishing for staff within the authority, utilising a software package that he has been involved in the development and testing of since 1998. Karl moved to local government in late 1985, his previous role being creative director of a small chain of high street print shops. | |||||||
 | Guy Millward Torbay Council |  | Sandra Phillips Bolton MBC |  | Andy Aughey Rochdale MBC | |||||
| I started getting involved with print many years ago when my business partner at the time sold Kodak South West as it was then, back to the Kodak parent company and wanted something to do! “Why don’t we start a printing company, it’s related to D&P”. Oh how innocent we were! Over time the business became more of a repro house than a printer and we were very busy. Then almost over night pre press plant started to become available at prices never before seen, every printer and his brother brought pre-press scanning, film and plate setting in and that was the end of the business. Luckily for me, my local council in-plant was desperate to move on from their Varityper Epics system, the newly installed print manager (Brian Fox) was used to big plant and big runs (several million at a time) and had been given six months to turn the fortunes of the department around or the council would close it. Within a week I had journalists in my office at midnight, frantically trying to get last minute copy ready for the Local Government Newspaper (the conference was held in Torbay that year) while I ran out film. A couple of days later I was installing servers stringing out a network and calibrating imagesetters, before showing the staff how to use the ‘Macs’ and ‘Quark’ etc……… six months later Brian called me over and said “you’d better start moderating your invoices because it looks like you’ll be here for some time to come”. In the April of 1999 I started work with Torbay’s new unitary authority, and things have evolved out of all recognition since, we’ve just gone through JE and we’re due to be moving out of the town hall soon. Who knows what these uncertain times will bring, but if we work together I’m sure security will return and more of us will survive to see it. I have been lucky enough to have been involved with the developing computerisation of the industry from the beginning, and I’m confident I can bring to APCOM a level of expertise few have been able to develop during their career. | I have in excess of 30 years experience working in document production, print and administration environments. I joined Bolton Council in 1998 as the Publishing Services Officer managing the Central Word Processing and Reprographics Unit. Due to a best value review my unit and the print unit were to merge together in order to provide a shared service for the Council, streamline processes and provide efficiencies of scale I was appointed as the Print and Publishing Manager in 2007. I have extensive knowledge of digital and reprographic print processes. I have seen and been at the forefront of many changes over the years implementing new services and improving existing services provided. Some of these include:
| Having now been with APCOM for a number of years, I’m delighted to be a member of the 2010 executive committee. I see being an ‘Executive member’, as an opportunity to support my personal and professional development as well as taking advantage of networking opportunities and contributing more actively to the continued growth and development of APCOM. I would also like to raise my awareness of the changing shape of printing and fulfillment in Local Government. Having managed some significant periods of change myself over the past few years, I am hoping to share these experiences with other members and support others through change. I am keen to offer support through the various activities scheduled for this year and looking forward to understanding more about the internal workings of APCOM and gaining further insight into the amount of hard work and dedication by both the executive and members that ensures APCOM is available for all of us, today and in the future. As I’m sure everyone will agree that the Blackpool conference was a really enjoyable event. Well coordinated, informative and professional as well as being a bit cheeky in parts. It was also great meeting new people and catching up with past acquaintances! | ||||||||