Ken Bittner Named PIASC Executive of the Year

LOS ANGELES—January 29, 2013—The Printing Industries Association, Inc. of Southern California (PIASC) announces the selection of Ken Bittner, president of Diversified Printers in La Mirada, CA, as PIASC Executive of the Year and the recipient of the highly-regarded Ben Franklin Award.

Janet Green, PIASC public relations chair, commented that it had been very easy to select Bittner as this year’s Executive of the Year because of his strong leadership and successful history in the printing industry.

Ken began his career in printing by attending California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo—better known as Cal Poly—where he earned his B.S. Degree in Printing Technology and Management in 1970. Following graduation, he attended graduate school at South Dakota State University at Brookings, where in 1971 he received his M.S. Degree in Printing Management & Labor Relations.

Ken’s first job landed him with Del Monte Corporation in the San Francisco Bay Area where he held various print management positions ranging from General Foreman to Plant General Manager over the next nine years. Shortly after leaving Del Monte's label, and packaging operations, Ken accepted a position with Jeffries Banknote in Los Angeles, where, over a six year period, he held the positions of Commercial Superintendent, V.P. Manufacturing, Executive V.P., General Manager, and Chief Operating Officer. During his time with Jeffries, he gained valuable experience in managing all facets of financial, securities, election and commercial printing.

In late 1986, Ken was recruited by American Standard Corporation to fill the position of President at its Frye & Smith printing facility in Costa Mesa, California, a ninety year old high-end commercial sheetfed and heatset web company. He held this position for ten years, until accepting the position of V.P. and General Manager with World Color's George Rice Division in Los Angeles. This position along with a short-term with the Wace-USA prepress network allowed him to gain more experience in high-end color printing and electronic prepress before moving back to the San Francisco area as President of American Lithographers (Jefferson-Smurfit Corporation.) with production facilities in both Hayward and Sacramento. With the sale of these two facilities to Consolidated Graphics some 5 years later, Ken was asked to do "turn-around" work for Jefferson- Smurfit’s Lee-Fung Asco Group at two of its four facilities in The People's Republic of China, where he lived and worked for the next 18 months while acting as Managing Director of two separate facilities.

On his return from China in early 2004, Ken and a close business associate decided to acquire Diversified Printers, Inc. of La Mirada, California, where Ken serves as President and CEO. Because of its unique equipment, Diversified Printers often does trade work for other printers. Today the company has 50 full-time employees and generates annual sales of nearly $11 million. It is built for longer runs, such as election ballots, catalogs, manuals, directories, books, parts/price lists, and brochures-- It takes on jobs that most commercial printers need less often.

Since 2006, Ken has been a strong support of his trade organization—Printing Industries Association of Southern California—as a member and officer of the association’s Board of Directors. In 2010-11, he served as Chairman of the Board.

The presentation of the Ben Franklin Executive of the Year Award will take place at PIASC’s annual Graphics Night/Print Excellence Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at the Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach, CA.

Event sponsors include: Allstate, Blue Shield of California, Carlson Advisors California, CIGNA, Citizens Business Bank, Graphic Electric, The Hanover Insurance Group, The Hartford So. California Regional Office, Health Net, Heidelberg USA, Humana Specialty Benefits, Ignisis (formerly Atlas Broadband), Kaiser Permanente, Kelly Paper, L.A. Envelope Co., Landmark Healthcare, PIASC Insurance Services, Preferred Employers Insurance Co., Presentation Folders Inc., Spicers Paper, Taylor Graphics, Thoro Packaging, UPS, and Western Dental.

Source: PIASC.