2010 Hall of Fame: Ed Garvey - All the Right Moves

"From a business learning perspective, I possessed the skills to do his job," Garvey recalls. "What I lacked were the personal skills and the background in the industry. But I already knew a lot of the people and felt somewhat comfortable with the environment."

Garvey rose to the occasion and has etched his fingerprints on the business in a profound and meaningful way. Perhaps the most striking evolution of the former Ed. Garvey & Co. has been in the last 10 years, when the firm exited the business forms and direct mail markets, while acquiring a number of companies that provided new capabilities. Garvey felt that business forms represented a mature, receding market. Direct mail, which the company was adept at producing, just wasn't a good fit and was too small a nut, in Garvey's estimate. Using the proceeds of the sale of his direct mail operations in Niles, IL, he obtained a trio of large-format KBA sheetfed offset presses.