Information Management Institute


22nd Annual
INK JET PRINTING CONFERENCE

January 30-February 1, 2013
Scottsdale Cottonwoods Resort & Suites
Scottsdale (Phoenix), Arizona


Speakers' Biographies

22nd Annual
INK JET PRINTING CONFERENCE

Speaker Biographies

Dr. Ross N. Mills, President & Director of Technology, Vexajet, Boulder, Colorado

Dr. Ross N. Mills, Vexajet Dr. Mills is currently President and Director of Technology for Vexajet LLC.

Since 1978 he has worked on ink jet technology for IBM, Lexmark International, Topaz Technologies and iTi Corporation as well as Vexajet. In 2010, he founded Vexajet in Boulder, Colorado for advanced applications of ink jet in digital fabrication. Dr. Mills is an internationally recognized inventor, author, lecturer and consultant in all aspects of ink jet technology.

He received his Ph.D. and M.S. Degrees in Engineering Science from the University of California Berkeley and his B.S. Degree in Aerospace Engineering with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin.



Mike Willis, Managing Director, Pivotal Resources, Cambridge, UK

Mike Willis, Managing Director, Pivotal Resources Mr. Willis is the founder and Managing Director of Pivotal Resources, an international marketing and technical consultancy specializing in digital printing. He has experience in a wide range of technologies and markets including drop-on-demand and continuous ink jet printing, electro-photographic technology, greyscale and colour reproduction methods and light sensitive materials.

He has worked in the digital printing industry for the past 28 years, accumulating considerable experience in a wide range of imaging technologies. Recognized as an industry expert, he regularly speaks and gives tutorials at printing conferences in Europe and North America. In addition he is publisher of Directions, a service that monitors ink jet patents and significant product launches.

Prior to founding Pivotal Resources, Mr. Willis was Director of Electronic Printing at Meta Generics. Mr. Willis was a founder member of Xaar - a spin-off company from Cambridge Consultants where he spent ten years working in a number of roles, culminating as Group Leader of Non-Impact Printing. Before that, he spent six years at Gestetner developing photocopiers.

Mr. Willis graduated from the Polytechnic of Central London with an honours degree in Photographic Sciences.




Dr. Ronald R. Adkins, VP R&D, RJA Dispersions LLC, Hudson, Wisconsin

Dr. Ronald R. Adkins, RJA Dispersions LLC Dr. Adkins began his professional career with the Flint Ink Corporation of Detroit Michigan in 1971 after receiving a B.S. in chemistry. He worked as a bench chemist until 1972 when he began studies full time to obtain a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Detroit. He returned to the Flint Ink Corporation in 1976 where he worked until 1984. In 1984, he joined the 3M Corporation. At 3M, he worked on screen printing inks, spray jet inks, and piezo ink jet inks for outdoor durable graphics.

In 2004 he retired from 3M as a Division Scientist to dedicate his efforts full time to RJA Dispersions, a company that he and his wife Reva founded in 2002. He now serves as VP of R&D of RJA Dispersions, LLC, a developer and manufacturer of fine pigment and particle dispersions for digital printing, transparent coatings, and electronics.



Tom Ashley, Director, Pivotal Resources USA, Lexington, Kentucky

Tom Ashley, Pivotal Resources USA Tom Ashley, Director of Pivotal Resources USA, has more than 40 years experience in digital printing. Tom founded the US branch of Pivotal Resources, Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) in 2002.

From 1986 to 2001, he held senior management positions with BIS Strategic Decisions and CAP Ventures (now InfoTrends), both widely recognized international consulting firms specializing in digital printing. From 1984 he was Associate Director of the Electronic Printer Service at Dataquest, a prominent Silicon Valley technology consulting firm. Prior to this he was Manager of Technology at Control Data Corporation, heading up its laser and inkjet printer development programs. Mr. Ashley was with IBM Corporation for 15 years, where he managed groups developing photoreceptors, inks and toners for IBM's first copier, laser printer and inkjet printer.

Mr. Ashley holds an AB degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from Transylvania University and an MS degree in Physical Organic Chemistry from Marshall University with additional graduate work in management at the University of Kentucky.

Mr Ashley has presented at more than 100 international conferences on digital printing.



Clive Ayling, Consultant, TTP, Royston, Hertfordshire, UK

Clive Ayling, TTP Clive Ayling is an inkjet specialist at The Technology Partnership (TTP). Clive’s roles at TTP are varied and include business development for TTP’s ‘Meteor’ business group and leading product development projects for TTP’s clients. TTP employs 300 scientific and engineering staff near Cambridge, UK. Around 25% of TTP’s engineers work on projects relating to digital printing, making TTP a leading service provider in this field. Clive has worked on label printers, coding and marking printing systems, proofer printers, wide format printers, bar code printers, office printers and industrial inkjet systems for many different industries. In 2005 Clive helped to found the ‘TTP Meteor’ business group that supplies electronics to drive industrial inkjet printheads used in OEM inkjet printers, custom industrial inkjet systems and inkjet laboratories. Clive is a regular speaker at IMI conferences: launching each new product from TTP Meteor and sharing insights into the state-of-the-art of engineering in this industry. Fifteen of his past presentations are available on www.ttpmeteor.com
Clive has worked at TTP for 15 years, leading many inkjet-related projects. Prior to this, Clive worked for 6 years as an R&D engineer for Schlumberger Industries (Solartron Transducers) developing industrial meters for liquid viscosity, flow and density. He has a degree in Natural Sciences (Physics) from Cambridge University.



Dr. Rich Baker, President, Integrity Industrial Ink Jet Integration, Lebanon, New Hampshire

Dr. Rich Baker, Integrity Industrial Ink Jet Integration Dr. Rich Baker is President of Integrity Industrial Ink Jet Integration, a company that works with end user customers to implement custom industrial ink jet print system solutions.

Prior to founding Integrity, Rich worked at FUJIFILM Dimatix (Spectra) for 14 years. As Director of Business Development at FUJIFILM Dimatix, he was responsible for fostering relationships between world leading ink companies, OEM systems integrators and end user customers. Prior to FUJIFILM Dimatix, Rich held the position of Chemical Products Manager at Markem, where he was responsible for developing a wide variety of inks including hot melt.

Rich has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts.




Paul Best, Engineer, ImageXpert, Nashua, New Hampshire

Paul Best, ImageXpert Paul Best is an Applications Engineer with ImageXpert Inc. Located in Nashua, New Hampshire, specializing in machine vision inspection for digital printing applications.

Prior to joining ImageXpert, Mr. Best worked as an Optical Engineer and Team Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulson Lab.



Marco Boer, Vice President, I.T. Strategies, Hanover, Massachusetts

Marco Boer, I.T. Strategies Marco Boer is recognized as a trusted consultant to the digital printing industry. He has a reputation for being able to put complex information and concepts into a context that is easily understood by his audience. With more than 22 years of experience in advising and guiding senior executives of Fortune 1000 and smaller innovative companies to successful business solutions in emerging digital printing markets, Mr. Boer has developed an extensive network of industry contacts in both the printing and investor community.

Mr. Boer is Vice President at I.T. Strategies where he focuses on product planning for graphics, transaction, and publishing printers and emerging industrial digital printing applications such as label printing, packaging printing, other non-document applications. During his tenure in the industry he has concentrated on researching applications and sizing markets for ink jet and laser printing technology, and has been a proponent for the use of digital color printing in business and industrial applications.

Prior to joining I.T. Strategies, Mr. Boer was manager of International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Printer Market Research service. At IDC, he was responsible for creating and implementing a worldwide printer research strategy and became a recognized authority on desktop printers. Prior to IDC, Mr. Boer was a senior printer analyst at BIS Strategic Decisions, where he tracked and forecasted the market and trends for both color and monochrome laser, ink jet, thermal, and dot matrix technologies.

Mr. Boer’s in-depth knowledge is highly regarded in the electronic printer industry. Trade magazines and national newspapers and magazines frequently quote him, and he is a speaker at international conferences sponsored by the Information Management Institute (IMI), the Digital Printing & Imaging Association (DPI), PRIMIR, and others. He guest lectures on a regular basis at New York University’s Graduate School of Graphics Communication.

Mr. Boer is an alumnus of the University of Maryland located in College Park, Maryland. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and international business. Mr. Boer has lived and traveled extensively through Europe, and has spend more than 500 days in Japan during his career in the digital printing industry.



Guy Broadhurst, Vice President, Technology and Client Solutions, Canon Solutions America, Inc.,, Boca Raton, Florida

Guy Broadhurst, Canon Solutions America For over 25 years, Mr. Broadhurst has been directly involved in bringing key innovations to the market and ultimately helping many companies achieve their goals. He joined Siemens Nixdorf Printing Systems in 1986 before Océ acquired it. He then helped pioneer Océ Print-on-Demand initiatives and launched every continuous feed product in a long line of industry-leading technologies. Most recently, he was instrumental in the growing success of the breakthrough Océ JetStream full color inkjet digital printing family. Companies around the world now depend on Océ continuous feed technology for a variety of promotional, transactional and publishing applications.

Today, as Vice President, Technology and Client Solutions at Canon Solutions America, Guy helps define and promote the Canon vision and translate it into real solutions. His goal has been to develop targeted and relevant solutions, and thanks to his success, corporate and commercial printers have the printing systems they need to serve their clients and grow their businesses. His reputation for credibility and strategic vision benefits both customers and technology innovators like Canon. Guy is responsible for development, launch, positioning, marketing, and sales support for all digital printing systems, document and workflow management software systems, media development, and pre- and post-processing and finishing alliances. He stays actively engaged in market and customer research to anticipate trends and issues. His close relationships with corporate and commercial customers ensure Océ understands and addresses the range of needs across the marketplace.

His interest and influence have guided many important advances, including:
• Support for light and, heavyweight papers
• Consistent performance across large volumes
A strong environmental focus
• A finishing philosophy as variable as the printer portfolio
• Host-to-post workflow integrity
• Advocacy for high-speed full color inkjet printing
• A market leader in digital book publishing technology

Guy speaks and writes extensively to educate the market and raise awareness of the latest capabilities and how they can be used. He has presented at ON DEMAND and Xplor Conferences, TransPromo Summits and other educational events. As a recognized industry expert, his monthly column, The Broadhurst Report is featured on the industry website Output Links.com. His topics of expertise include technology for TransPromo communications, book publishing workflow, the latest in color inkjet systems and many more areas. All these efforts have contributed to his wellearned reputation for knowledge and credibility in addressing and solving top issues facing customers and the industry.



Russ Brown, Marketing Manager OEM Printheads, Fujifilm Dimatix, Lebanon, New Hampshire



Vince Cahill, VCE Solutions, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Vince Cahill, VCE Solutions Vince Cahill is the President of VCE Solutions in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. It provides consulting and brokering of business relations for the Printing Industry. VCE Solutions also develops integrated digital printing solutions for industrial applications.

Mr. Cahill has served in the Printing Industry as a printer, business executive, author, consultant, technology developer and inventor for over thirty years. He was a founder of The Colorworks printing company in 1976 and Industrial Printing Solutions in 2005. He has worked with other printing companies, OEMs, print technology developers and teaching institutions. He has written extensively for industry publications on printing issues and is the former CEO of Datametrics Corporation.

Mr. Cahill is a graduate of Fordham University.



Yuan (Charlie) Chang, Vice President of R&D, Amica Systems, Irvine, California

Yuan (Charlie) Chang, Amica Systems Yuan “Charlie” Chang is Vice President of R&D and founder of Amica Systems in 2002 and Amiable Technologies in 1988.

In the past 25 years he has led the design and development of various CAD, CAM, Adobe Postscript RIP, image processing, color management, and printing software.

Since the founding of Amica Systems in 2002, Charlie has focused on the development of industrial inkjet systems and technologies for the wide format graphics and single pass press digital inkjet printers for textile, outdoor graphics, markings, decoration and packaging applications. There are over 30 printer manufacturer OEMs around the world who build and sell inkjet printers with Amica Systems’ products. Charlie holds many patents in inkjet printing systems, and he often gives presentation at industry conferences.

Charlie received his M.S. degree in Computer Graphics and Image Processing from the University of Pennsylvania, and B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas in Austin.



Brian Keefe, Distinguished Technologist, Printing & Technology Development, Hewlett Packard, San Diego, California

Mr. Keefe served as Chief Engineer for the technology phase of the integrated pagewide printhead and ink delivery system through definition and feasibility. He produced the technical white paper released by HP in October that describes HP PageWide Technology in detail.

A veteran of Hewlett-Packard Company for over 26 years, his current title is Distinguished Technologist for Printing and Technology Development with a continuing role as platform architect for pagewide inkjet technology.



Akiyoshi Ohno, President & CEO, Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc., Tokyo, Japan



Robert Palmer, President, Palmer Consulting, Wichita, Kansas

Robert Palmer, Palmer Consulting Robert Palmer is an independent market analyst and industry consultant. With more than 20 years of experience in the imaging and printing industry, he has covered technology and business for prominent market research firms such as Lyra Research and InfoTrends. He was managing editor for the Hard Copy Observer for six years and more recently served as director of office document services for Photizo Group.

Mr. Palmer is recognized as a leading consultant and industry analyst for the consumer and office printing markets. He is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences around the world, and is frequently quoted or published in industry trade magazines and leading business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Business Week.



Stewart Partridge, Managing Director, Qudos Digital Asia Pacific, Shanghai, China

Stewart Partridge, Qudos Digital Asia Pacific Based in Shanghai, Mr Partridge is currently Sales Director, Asia Pacific Region for two leading European inkjet ink manufacturers: Chimigraf Ibérica SL of Barcelona, Spain and Sepiax Ink Technology GmbH of Austria. He also acts as Technical Consultant to Sepiax on novel ink development.

Formerly, Mr Partridge was Sales Director for Asia Pacific for the US-owned ink manufacturer Nazdar, following on from his earlier role of OEM and business development director. Prior to that, for 13 years Mr Partridge founded and managed Web Consulting, a respected global consulting business for the digital printing industry, with research offices in Shanghai China, Oxford UK and Boston USA. During that period, he also assisted FESPA with the development of its digital conference programmes in Europe.

Mr Partridge has spoken at more than 180 conferences worldwide, written more than 125 articles and 25 reports on the markets, development and evolution of digital printing, and provided services to many leading brands of digital printing equipment, inks, media and software.



Mike Raymond, Director of Sales & Marketing, SII Printek, Newark, Delaware

Mike Raymond, SII Printek Mike Raymond is Director of Sales and Marketing for SII Printek, Inc. (Seiko). For the last 4 years he has been in a consultative marketing and selling role, helping printer manufacturers develop new products using SII Printek’s inkjet technology.

Prior to SII Printek, Mr. Raymond was the Program Manager for DuPont’s Digital Textile Printers and Inks. Along with the DuPont team, he launched the highly successful Artistri brand products for textile printing from 2000 to 2010. Prior to DuPont, Mike was Director of Printhead Development for Trident, an ITW Company where he developed and manufactured inkjet printhead technology.

Mike has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hartford and a Six Sigma Master Black Belt from Villanova University. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=16919628&trk=tab_pro



Julie Shaffer, Vice President, Digital Technologies, Printing Industries of America, Sewickley, Pennsylvania

Julie Shaffer, Printing Industries of America Julie Shaffer is Vice President, Digital Technologies at Printing Industries of America. She heads up the Digital Printing Council (DPC) as well as the Center for Digital Printing Excellence at Printing Industries headquarters in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. In her position, Shaffer plays a lead role in developing programs and tools to help members grow their businesses with digital technologies.

Ms. Shaffer has a 20-plus year background in pre-media and print and is well known for her graphic production expertise. She is often called upon for training, presentations and to provide on-site consulting throughout the industry on diverse range of topics, including PDF, integrated marketing, digital printing, social media and print ecommerce. As an author, Ms. Shaffer contributes many articles to industry publications as well as social media venues and pens white papers, case studies, and research reports. Shaffer is co-author of several books, including The PDF Print Production Guide (1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions), the Web-to-Print Primer and most recently Social Media Field Guide: A Resource for Graphic Communicators.



Debbie Thorp, Business Development Director, Global Inkjet Systems, Cambridge, UK

Debbie Thorp, Global Inkjet Systems Ltd. Ms. Thorp has worked in digital printing for over 20 years, including 10 years in senior positions at specialist digital printing consultancy companies such as BIS Strategic Decisions, IT Strategies and CAP Ventures.

Debbie joined Xaar as Head of Group Marketing in the late 90's and then moved on to be Director of Business Development at AIP Ltd, a liquid toner technology joint venture between RLA and TTP. More recently Debbie was VP EMEA Operations at iTi - an inkjet integrator and materials deposition device manufacturer.

In early 2010, Debbie was appointed Business Development Director at Global Inkjet Systems Ltd, a leading developer of innovative software and electronics for industrial inkjet printheads.

Debbie has a BA degree in Modern Languages from Manchester University and an MBA from Durham University Business School.



Dr. Yonglin Xie, Senior Principal Scientist, Eastman Kodak, Rochester, New York

Dr. Yonglin Xie, Eastman Kodak Dr. Yonglin Xie is a senior principal scientist and project leader at Eastman Kodak Company. He has been with Kodak since 2005 working on research and development in printing devices, microfluidics, and MEMS design and fabrication.

Before joining Kodak, Dr. Xie was a faculty member in the physics department at Peking University from 1987 to 1989. From 1994 to 2001, he was a Principal Scientist at Xerox Corporation working on drop-on-demand (DOD) thermal inkjet technology and product development. From 2001 to 2005, he was Manager of the New Technology Department at Trident – An ITW Company, developing piezo and other drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet technologies and products. Dr. Xie is the inventor of 46 granted inkjet patents.

Dr. Xie received his Ph.D. degree in physics from Boston University and a B.S. and a M.S. degree in physics from Peking University. He also received an executive MBA degree from the Simon School of business at the University of Rochester.



Mack Xin, President, Human Digital, Shanghai & Jiashan, China

Mack Xin, Human Digital Mr. Xin started his career in 1982 as a lecturer at Lu Wan branch of Shanghai Industrial University. He later worked at the University of Melbourne in Australia as a visiting research fellow & gained his masters degree in Electronic Engineering. Afterwards Mr. Xin worked for Kodak and then Scitex, the leading manufacturer of high-speed digital printing machines, in Australia. In 1996 Mr. Xin moved back to China to establish and manage Scitex’s sales and support operations there.

In year 2000, when Scitex was acquired by HP, Mr. Xin left to found his own digital printing machinery company Human Digital Technology Company Ltd. He has been CEO of the company since then, steering Human Digital to become one of the largest digital OEM’s in China, manufacturing more than 300 printers every month for graphics, textile and industrial applications, with worldwide distribution channels.



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