Agfa Gevaert  Oce  appointments  prepress  printing - inkjet  printing - large format 
Agfa has today announced a reorganisation of its regional management team, to come into effect during the second quarter of 2007. "With the imminent retirement of some of our key staff, it has allowed us to put into place a well thought out succession plan that not only brings new faces and fresh ideas to the regional management team, but also allows an orderly hand-over of key responsibilities in coming months," explains regional general manager, John Shore.

As previously announced, industry veteran Bruce Lowery will leave Agfa after thirty seven years of service. He will hand over to another long-term Agfa staffer, Steve Taylor. Taylor will take on the important role of Inkjet Business Manager for the Oceania region.

"It’s no secret that inkjet is of enormous importance at Agfa," says Shore. "Bruce established some critical foundations for our launch into industrial inkjet and I am counting on Steve to build on those and establish a prominent market position – just as Agfa has in our other market sectors."

Taylor has already relocated to Melbourne. His previous position, as Agfa’s New Zealand sales manager, has been filled by Auckland-based Mike Stevens, who commenced his new role on February 1.

Chris Gander and Trevor Dawe, who have both had long careers with Printing Technologies and later Agfa Graphics, will leave the business at the end of June. Gander’s responsibility for Agfa’s prepress systems will be taken over by Harry Kontogiannis (previously Agfa’s regional services manager). Mike O’Sullivan will fill the vacated regional services role, having relocated to Melbourne from Sydney were he had spent over ten years as that state’s services manager.

"Digital prepress still remains our core competency," says Shore. "Harry has a production background in digital prepress and an impeccable career in our technical services team, making him a logical choice for such a product-focused role. Mike is very well respected in the Sydney and Brisbane markets, which will no doubt transfer to his new regional role."

Grant Cooper, who currently maintains a sales management position for the Victorian and Tasmanian markets, will assume the role of offset business manager at the end of June when Dawe leaves. Cooper is a qualified lithographic printer and his career at Agfa spans nearly 20 years, involving both technical and sales roles. Recently, he has taken on a high profile assisting with the successful release of Agfa’s :Azura chemical-free plate system that is dominating the growing processless sector of the digital offset plate market.

"Grant will undertake a dual role, having the additional responsibility of managing a growing distributor channel primarily focused on offset sales to the small- and medium-format markets," Shore explains.

The roles of business manager - Newspapers (Koni Neuhofer), and regional marketing manager (Garry Muratore) remain unchanged, while commercial manager Ross Boyce will assume the role as regional finance and administration manager.

With many of the new managers coming from state-based positions, several new faces will assume state roles in the coming weeks.

"Succession planning runs through our entire organisation," stresses Shore. "The state-based personnel are our people at the coal-face, so it is imperative that we have dynamic, customer-focused staff employed in such positions."

With Grant Cooper vacating his Victorian sales role, his position will be assumed by Nigel Compton (currently responsible for Agfa’s comprehensive range of third-party agency products). Compton has previous sales management experience, having managed Printing Technologies’ New Zealand operation in the late nineties before relocating to Agfa in Melbourne in 2001.

David Anderson, who currently heads up Agfa’s Queensland sales operation will leave the company in June after 20 years of services (initially with Printing Technologies and later Agfa Graphics). Moving to Brisbane will be Gavin Hartslief, who has been in charge of Agfa’s Western Australian sales over the last three years. Hartslief has had roles with Agfa in Melbourne, Cape Town, and Johannesburg in both sales, applications, and technical service positions.

From April 1, newspaper applications specialist Gary Illing will assume sales responsibilities for newspapers and commercial markets based in Perth.

"With Agfa having such a high profile in newspaper markets across the regions, we feel that Gary’s excellent technical background will serve him and our Perth-based customers well," Shore adds.

The Agfa Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading imaging companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the graphics industry, healthcare sector, and specific industrial applications. Headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium, the company is active in 40 countries and has agents throughout the world. It achieved a turnover of €3.308bn in 2005 (A$5.61bn).

Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress solutions (comprising consumables, hardware, software, and services for production workflow, project and color management) to the printing industry. Computer-to-film, computer-to-plate and digital proofing systems have earned Agfa Graphics a worldwide leadership position in the commercial and package printing and newspaper publishing markets, and it is rapidly expanding its offerings in the growing digital inkjet market.