APCOM Guest

Mark Barlow
APCOM President

Blackpool Council

Anthony Evans
APCOM Vice President

City and County of Swansea

Heather Anderson
APCOM Secretary

Sheffield City Council

Vacant
APCOM Treasurer

Please contact Anthony Evans

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 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.

Anthony is the Manager of the City and County of Swansea, DesignPrint unit, which incorporates graphic design, large format, both digital and litho 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 been an active member of APCOM since 2003 and was formerly editor of the magazine and secretary.
Anthony has 3 sons, all playing footbal, rugby, cricket, etc., so spends most weekends on the touch line, and is chairman of the local junior football club.

Karl Kay
APCOM Executive Member

North East Lincolnshire Council

APCOM President 2006-2008, Tony is Print & Reprographics Manager, Cheshire West and Chester Council.
A draftsman by trade which developed into technical design during time largely spent working for Plymouth City Council.
He moved to Chester in 1991 to manage their technical support team. Being one of the largest users of the print facility (and a challenging one at that!) He was offered the role of reprographics manager in 1992, with a brief to modernise the print facility, embrace technology, operate trading accounts and develop the design capability. That challenge is a big today as it was then.
2009 saw the formation of Cheshire West and Chester council as a new unitary where Tony was appointed their print and reprographics manager.
During the past 15 years he has gained experience in all areas of print, print procurement, job evaluation, printing strategy to name but a few.
He is the proud father of 2 beautiful daughters. When not working, Tony enjoys most things ‘Irish’, playing golf and following his chosen football team Stoke. Most of his time however, is spent feeling knackered and trying to be a good father.

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.
Kathie is a qualified graphic designer and has worked in the Design & Print industry for 23 years in a variety of roles from creative designer, through to Design and Pre-press Management and more recently as the Head of the Design & Print and Postal Services at Somerset County Council before moving on to her current role. Kathie has been an active member of APCOM since 2003.

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. 

Graham Lowe
APCOM Executive Member

Staffordshire County Council

Jo Pitt
APCOM Executive Member

House of Commons

Torbay Council

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.