New faces and people movements in the industry

Maria Nordstrom's new role at Fuji Xerox is effective immediately, and will see her lead the division that provides production digital printing and software solutions to its customers throughout Australia.

Nordstrom (pictured right) earned a solid reputation through her work in previous sales management roles within the company. First joining the printing systems group in 1996, she achieved success through developing strategic and long-lasting relationships with both customers and business associations.

Nordstrom was appointed to state operations manager in WA in 2002 where Fuji Xerox claims she took the operation from satisfactory performance to outstanding. She achieved this through a vision of growth and development in the industry, and was responsible for putting in place several education and market initiatives that were adopted by some of WA's printers.

“I was very privileged to work with many customers with foresight that embraced print innovation,” said Nordstrom. “Our workshops and quarterly training seminars in WA proved extremely successful and valuable and these will continue under the new state manager Steve Jordan's leadership.”

Nordstrom says she is looking forward to leading the group that has previously flourished under Nick Kugenthiran.

“I look forward to building on the group's existing success by remaining focused on the profitability and growth of our customers.”

Phil Chambers, managing director of Fuji Xerox Australia, says he is confidant Nordstrom will bring a lot to the role.

“In a climate where digital technology continues to spark endless opportunities for print producers to tap into new markets and revenue streams, Maria has a strong understanding of our business and the industry insight that our customers can use to their advantage.”

Heidelberg introduces its new prepress manager


Glenn Plummer, general manager of marketing at HAN, has announced the appointment of Soeren Lange (pictured right) to the role of product manager for prepress and workflow.

Lange comes to HAN with nine years experience working for Heidelberg Germany in various roles including his most recent, channel support manager for CTP devices for Scandinavia, the UK and North America. He also worked for the factory in Kiel as its PR manager and was extensively involved in the market launch of the Suprasetter.

“In his new role Soeren will be responsible for all workflow aspects of Prinect and our extensive CtP offerings,” says Plummer.

Colour management will also be a focus with the anticipated rollout of Inpress Control, the latest workflow module for Prinect. Lange's role will be to create a greater understanding of the tangible benefits that Prinect can deliver across the workflow.

“The real differentiator of Heidelberg's Prinect workflow solution is its ability to connect all aspects of the production process from creation to delivery of the finished product,” says Lange.

“My perception of the Australian and New Zealand markets is that they are more aligned to the mature printing environments of Europe and the US than they are to their Asian neighbours,” he says.

Over the next month Lange will undertake a whirlwind tour of the region to get to know the lay of the land, and says he already feels at home.

“What I like very much about Australia is that everyone seems to be relaxed. That's not to say Australians don't know how to do business, clearly they do, but they have an easier manner about them and my wife Katy and I look forward to enjoying this more easy going environment.”

GMG's Ivan Khoo relocates to Australia


Proofing and workflow supplier GMG, represented in Australia by Kayell Imaging, has relocated its Asian region sales manager Ivan Khoo (pictured right) to Australia to support a growing installed base of GMG proofing and colour management workflow systems.

Previously based in Kuala Lumpur, Khoo will be joined by a factory-trained technical engineer in October and both are working out of Kayell's Artarmon, NSW office/showroom. These two appointments are in addition to Kayell's qualified colour experts in NSW and Victoria, and dealers nationwide.

“Australia has gone from zero to hero for GMG since we exhibited with Kayell at PacPrint, just one year ago,” says Khoo.

“GMG's approach to colour is not limited to ICC. We go beyond ICC and render highly accurate, smooth colour proofs to match ISO, SWOP, 3DAP, GRACol or any other standard. ICC-only separations just cannot render a rich, full gamut compared to GMG's Colour Server Separations,” he says.

“It is this precision that has enabled us to win proofing business of Ikea, M&C Saatchi, Schawk, Axel Springer, Burda, Quebecor, Times, C&C, BMW, Nestlé, Ogilvey & Mather, Leo Burnett, Cummings here in Australia and many other high-profile firms who demand the best colour.”

Robert Gatto, director of Kayell, says having Ivan and a technical support person direct from GMG is a fantastic boost to his company's colour resources.

“It's also a demonstration of GMG's total commitment to the market. We've had some big successes recently and the extra resources are coming in to support these,” says Gatto.

Kayell Imaging is an Australia-owned supplier to the professional graphic arts and photographic sectors. In addition to GMG, other brands handled include GTI, Gretagmacbeth, Colorvision, Eizo, Epson, Elinchrom, and a host of pro photo cameras and accessories.

GMG is based in T_bingen, Germany and has over 8,500 installations globally. The company leads the world in high-end colour management software for professional photographers, designers, advertising agencies, packaging and commercial printing/publishing.