CIP4 Announces New Leadership
WASHINGTON, DC—July 7, 2010—The International Cooperation for the Integration of the Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) organization announced the results of its election for Advisory Board representatives. The Advisory Board has three types of representatives, reflecting the three classes of membership: Partner, Full and Associate members.
Although open to all graphic arts companies, Full members tend to be companies that sell software and system to the printing industry. The Full member representatives that will serve on the Advisory Board until 2012 include:
• Rohan Holt, President of LithoTechnics Pty Limited (Australia)
• Keigo Shirai, Founder and President of Olive Inc. (Japan)
• Jacques Thiebauld, Chief Technical Officer of DALiM Software GmbH (Germany)
• Henny van Esch, President of Optimus Group Ltd. (The Netherlands)
• Patrick Vreven, CEO of GamSys Software (Belgium)
• Karl Williamson, Technical Sales Manager at Goss International (USA)
Williamson, a first-time Advisory Board Representative, said "My goal is to contribute my time and experience to the CIP4 organization to help foster the continuing growth of JDF in the industry. In this economy cutting costs while increasing efficiency is a daily struggle for printers and JDF is a key component in achieving this goal. I look forward to the next two years - learning new applications of JDF and helping to promote JDF expansion throughout the industry."
Associate level membership in CIP4 offers a significant discount in dues, but is a class of membership that is restricted to companies that don't produce software and systems, such as printers, prepress services, consultants, educational institutes and associations serving the industry. The Associate Advisory Board Representatives are:
• Dr. Mark F. J. Bohan, Vice President, Research and Technology of Printing Industries of America (USA)
• Stephan Jaeggi, President of PrePress-Consulting (Switzerland)
• Patrick Cahuet, Director of 1Prime|Concept (France)
Cahuet is also a first-time Advisory Board Representative. "I am very proud of becoming a new member of the CIP4 Advisory Board," said Cahuet. "I believe that it is a great opportunity to be even more involved in the workflow automation process. Even though I have not written a single line of code since my years in college, I think that my contributions might be useful for CIP4 organization on the business development side. I strongly believe that actors of the graphic arts industry should better understand that JDF applications and workflow automation process are fantastic tools for their companies' business development. CIP4 and JDF are still not fully known in the local market place.
"Variable data printing applications, web-to-print solutions, cross media and e-books will become more and more important for the future of printing industry and I'm glad to see how CIP4 is getting more and more involved in this evolution. I welcome the opportunity to contribute my expertise and to help commercial printers and digital printers to face the forthcoming convergence of communication technologies with success. My goals are to be more involved than ever in CIP4," Cahuet concluded.
The CIP4 Advisory Board is the highest level of leadership for the organization, responsible for making strategic decisions for the organization, as well as electing the officers who have day-to-day operational responsibility. Full and Associate level member representatives to the Advisory Board are elected by the membership, the number of which is based on membership proportions established by the CIP4 Bylaws.
"The new Advisory Board reflects the global diversity of CIP4," said CIP4 CEO Margaret Motamed of EFI. "CIP4 has members from 32 countries, and from every continent except Antarctica. Furthermore, our new Advisory Board includes members with both strong technical backgrounds as well as executive level management experience, which will provide the balance, insight and leadership that we will need in the coming years." Biographical information on all CIP4 Advisory Board members can be found at http://www.cip4.org/contact/ab_bod.php?list=AB.
About CIP4
CIP4 brings together vendors, consultants, and end-users in the print communications, graphic arts industry, and associated sectors, covering a variety of equipment, software, peripherals, and processes. Members participate in focused working groups to define the Job Definition Format (JDF), PrintTalk, and other standards relevant to process automation; to study user requirements; to test product interoperability; and to develop a range of JDF software development tools. Information on CIP4, including membership details, is available from the organization's website: www.cip4.org. Or contact: Stefan Daun, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, +49 6151 155 575, secretariat@cip4.org. All content and ideas submitted to the CIP4 user groups and intellectual property rights subsisting therein shall become the exclusive property of CIP4.
About JDF
The Job Definition Format (JDF) is the industry specification designed to facilitate process automation and the integration of different applications and systems in and around the graphic arts industry. JDF also enables the integration of business management and job planning applications into the production workflow. JDF is based on the W3C's Extensible Markup Language (XML), ensuring maximum interoperability between different platforms and ready interaction with Internet systems. More information is available at www.cip4.org.
