SUPPLIER news

Christian Reinaudo has been named the new CEO of Agfa-Gevaert. He succeeds Jo Cornu, who will serve as a member of the board of directors. In other company news, Agfa Graphics has been appointed an Adobe Gold Solution Partner and member of the Adobe Partner Connection.

Kodak and Ricoh Americas have signed a multiyear renewal of an expanded reseller agreement for Kodak NexPress digital production color presses and Kodak Digimaster digital production systems. Both Ricoh and IKON may also sell Kodak document imaging and unified workflow solutions, including Creo color servers. In other news, Eric Owen has been appointed Kodak's worldwide vice president of customer development for digital printing solutions.

Zarik Megerdichian, founder and CEO of 4over Inc., recently held a "town hall" meeting for more than 250 customers at the trade printer's Miami facility. He discussed the new direct-to-consumer Website, Project Red Tag, which can help print resellers acquire new online print buyer customers. A tiered Loyalty Program has been created in conjunction with the program.

Several announcements have been made at Heidelberg. Heidelberg USA has renamed its 40,000-square-foot demo center in Kennesaw, GA, the North American Print and Packaging Technology Center. In February, the company marked the 10,000th customer visit to the center. In other company news, Howard Hutchings has been tapped as the new chief information officer at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. He succeeds Michael Neff.

As part of Bobst Group North America's reorganization into three business units—sheetfed, webfed and services—Michael D'Angelo has been appointed to the newly created role of vice president and business director for the new webfed business unit in North America, while maintaining his current sales position for corrugated equipment in the sheetfed business unit. Bobst Group SA has also named Alain Jendly, the former North American vice president of flexible materials, to the newly created position of worldwide head of service centers.

Jamie Sutphin has rejoined Braden Sutphin Ink as a technical sales representative after 25 years of experience in the printing ink industry.

To assist victims of the earthquake that struck Haiti in January, Fujifilm provided $400,000 in financial assistance and Fujifilm medical products and equipment to the nonprofit group Hope for Haiti. In other company news, Fujifilm North America announced that Fujifilm Sericol U.S.A. has joined its Graphic Systems Div. The integration adds screen printing, wide-format digital and narrow web printing expertise to Fujifilm's presence in the commercial printing market.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions announced two changes to its senior management team. Jun Haraguchi, president and CEO, is now general manager of worldwide sales and marketing for Konica Minolta Business Technologies in Japan. Nobuo (Ned) Umehara, general manager of OEM sales for Konica Minolta Business Technologies, has been named president and CEO of Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A.

Several announcements have been made at Manugraph DGM. Dave Moreland has been promoted to president. He succeeds Brian LaBine, who will remain active as a member of the company's board of directors. Ron Ehrhardt has been promoted to vice president of international sales and marketing; Rodney Fenstermacher to vice president of manufacturing; and Ed Heim to director of parts sales, managing all aftermarket parts sales activities.

Several organizational changes have been announced at Ricoh Americas: Kevin Togashi, chairman and CEO of Ricoh Americas Holdings; Matthew Espe, chairman and CEO of Ricoh Americas; Jeffrey Hickling has expanded his current role as president and COO of IKON Office Solutions to become president and CEO of Ricoh U.S.; and Martin Brodigan, executive vice president and CFO for Ricoh Americas.

HP and Appleton Coated have signed an agreement, wherein Appleton will develop customized coated papers—matte and dull finishes—for the HP T300 color inkjet web press. The papers are scheduled for mid-2010 availability in North America.

RISO Inc. has entered into an agreement with Sir Speedy, PIP Printing and Marketing Services, and Signal Graphics franchisees, wherein it will now offer its ComColor high-speed ink-jet printers under a special pricing structure.

The Bennett Group is now offering its Barcode to Bottom Line certification program. Developed for the direct mail/marketing industries, the certification program covers six mailing industry-related titles in a self-paced educational initiative through workbooks and CDs.

Océ and CGS Publishing Technologies have established a preferred solution partnership, wherein Océ will now extend its software/workflow solutions with several products out of CGS's ORIS portfolio. The partnership will also enable Océ to offer more comprehensive solutions, particularly in hybrid environments.

At Finch Paper, Robert McDonald has been named vice president of manufacturing. Prior to joining Finch, he worked at several paper companies during a 30-year industry career.

Gordon Grissom has joined manroland as district sales manager, sheetfed, for the Mountain region, covering Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

Kompac Technologies recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Since 1980, the company has expanded its product line to include retrofit dampening systems for more than 150 press models. In 2006, the Kompac Kwik Finishing coating and curing system debuted.

David Andrew Samide, marketing manager at Prime UV Systems, died on March 21st after a seven-year battle with brain cancer. Mr. Samide, 32, joined Prime UV in 2000 as an assistant and was promoted shortly thereafter. PI