FESPA Australia announces first Future Leader

Twelve talented individuals graduated from the first-ever FESPA Australia  Future Leaders program last week. Held over two days, FESPA Australia hosted a diverse cohort of emerging leaders from all parts of our industry, from garment decoration and signage to commercial print, suppliers and print service providers.

These people had expressed a clear leadership ambition, a history of investing in themselves and others, and a commitment to work towards a better industry. With over 30 nominations received, eight independent judges had a tough job rating the applications against the selection criteria.

At stake was an expense-paid trip to FESPA Munich for one of the emerging leaders to act as spokesperson for the group to the 37 National Associations that make up the FESPA Community.

Nigel Davies, President of FESPA Australia, says, "the pandemic challenged many leaders, including myself, so we wanted future leaders to be better prepared. The program had to be tailored to our industry and combine cutting-edge leadership coaching with insights from industry veterans. The quality of facilitation was the key; otherwise, it would be just like any other leadership program.

Carl Harman, Managing Director of Imago Leadership, was FESPA's choice. He has worked with and coached the senior and executive teams and boards of many prominent corporate and government organisations internationally. Upon delivering the program, Carl said, "I have worked with countless groups from a myriad of industries and this week was a career highlight."

The cohort voted Troy Cavanagh of ImageBox Group to be their spokesman and FESPA Future Leader. On LinkedIn, Troy says "It was a very humbling experience to be selected by industry peers to be the FESPA Future Leader of 2022 and head to FESPA Munich 2023 to represent them all. What a great experience."

Davies says, "the personal feedback,  LinkedIn posts from the group and their employers have been exceptional, and their journey had only just begun. We want these talented individuals to grow together and set their minds to the challenges of our industry. We are looking for mentors to work with them; industry thought leaders to meet with them, so be in touch if you want to work with the program as a participant or mentor.

The FESPA Future Leaders program was made possible through the generous support of Diamond Sponsor Orafol, Gold Sponsors Ball & Doggett, Durst, Starleaton, Visual Connections, Silver Sponsors Kissel and Wolf, M-Power Software, Cactus Imaging, Bronze Sponsors HVG and Ricky Richards. The Glen Crerar Memorial Training Scholarship will support the FESPA Future Leader to represent FESPA Australia in Europe in 2023.

FESPA AUSTRALIA FUTURE LEADERS CLASS OF 2022

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES (PARTICIPANT SUPPLIED)

GLEN MOFFAT | CACTUS IMAGING

Glenn has been in the creative industry for more than 25 years and began as a wide eyed, open minded sign writer's apprentice, before traversing his way through an industry influenced by technological change. It was the early years where he formed the foundation of his desire to explore and grow his skills and knowledge within his chosen industry, a choice that has opened many opportunities, but also where he has developed fundamental soft skills that has enabled him to recognise that behaviours remained the key for success. As a manager, he is driven by the success of his team and more broadly the organisation, as an individual, he is ambitious and passionate about a future in what he does, he’s driven by responses, internally and externally, the satisfaction of achieving, and receiving recognition by exceeding one’s expectations, being challenged by change, sustainability, and ultimately, enjoying what he does.

TROY CAVANAGH | IMAGEBOX GROUP

Troy’s journey commenced in the graphic art industry over 24 years ago, starting with ImageBox Group in Large format print production. While being positioned in production, he commenced learning as a finishing assistant and progressed into many roles within the production team. During this 8 year period he then progressed to become a Production Manager and lead a team of over 15 staff. He then left Imagebox and went on to develop further new skills and learnt sales processes within the print industry, and under a short time frame and with a new found passion, he returned to ImageBox in the Sales department with a focus on key account and major project management. What he enjoy’s about the industry is that no two days are ever the same whilst also having the privilege of producing work for international brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Omega, Longines, Tissot, or working on major national projects such as Australian War Memorial, National Sports Museum, Shrine of Remembrance, ACMI & Australian Open. Furthermore, the rapport, extensive network and connections of colleagues, suppliers and clients he has met over the years provides a great deal of satisfaction and reward.

LUKE PARISELLA | IMAGEBOX GROUP

Luke is the Operations Manager at Image Box. He says he still feels excited daily to manage in an environment that gives freedom to express thoughts and opinions. The ability to marriage creative expression and then implement that into a finished product is extremely rewarding and that’s what drives him daily. Other drivers comes from dealing with people and an understanding that a positive outlook can create outcomes to projects that seem at first, 'too difficult to achieve'. He enjoys coming up with solutions through positivity and leading by example and that feeling is certainly contagious. He is confident, energetic and committed that loves a challenge. His passion for sustainability has resulted in him implementing a completely new sustainability program which now sees Image Box using nearly 100% sustainable products in some areas of their business.

CHLOE MA

Chloe is an ambitious professional with innovation proficiency and extensive business management experience. She thrives in high-pressure and fast-paced situations, striving for positive results by applying key strategic management skills. With her unconventional, yet highly effective strategies, she leads her teams to maximize performance as well as inspiring colleagues. She is the owner and director of Bannercity Pty Ltd, Sign Solutions Pty Ltd. And both Kapital Aus and Hong Kong operations. She has been in the printing, signage and graphic design for 14 years and is totally enthused by the industry.

STELLA LIM | HEXIS AUSTRALIA

Stella has been working with Hexis Australia for the last 1.5 years. She graduated with an Honours Degree in Human Nutrition and practiced in the Nutrition field doing various functions (training, operations and sales) from 2015 - 2020 in Singapore. She is a keen learner in life and always seeks out new challenges to push herself to master new skills. Despite joining Hexis with no prior experience of the printing and self-adhesive manufacturing industry, she has developed a passion for the industry which has gone beyond her expectations. Being new to the industry motivates her to offer fresh perspectives and solutions to existing issues which help to maximise results for her team. She enjoys working in a fast-paced environment and is driven by results. Being able to navigate through any challenges and reaching deadlines gives her a sense of accomplishment, all while picking up new knowledge and skills about the printing industry.

PRANIL CHANDRA | NEXT PRINTING

With a passion for driving a profitable business with purpose, Pranil has been part of Next Printing for three plus years. As part of his role as Head of Sales, he is responsible for driving the sales and marketing strategy for the company. This includes market positioning, and more importantly developing strategies to introduce more eco-friendly solutions and educate customers on how they can be part of the solution, thereby leaving the planet in a better place than where we found it.

JOSHUA BEVERIDGE | STARLEATON

Joshua is the state sales manager for Starleaton Queensland where he has been working for almost 9 years. He is highly driven by helping, encouraging, and adding value to people and businesses. Seeing businesses and people succeeding and knowing he had a hand in that brings him great joy. He believes that a true leader is one that serves and adds value to others, a true leader is someone that is trustworthy, resilient, and always optimistic about the future. Born in a small farming town in New Zealand, he then migrated over to Australia with his parents back in 1987 for a better life and opportunity. He is happily married to his wife Nicole and has 3 children Mason(9), Ariana(7) and Alora (3) and he now calls the Gold Coast his home.

AARON GRIGG | BLAIR SIGNS & PRINT

A result driven person he likes leading teams to success. A skilled Signage Professional he worked with leading sign companies across New Zealand before setting up a Sign Installation service across Queensland. Joining Blair Signs, a division of VMG Print Group in 2014 he spearheaded the acquisition of Mackay Stickers and Signs in 2021 and manages a team of 15 from Mackay.

JODI TAYLOR | PSI SCREENPRINTING

I am the CEO of PSI Screenprinting based on the Gold Coast and have been in business for over 16 years. I am passionate about empowering people to succeed and excel in their careers. I am involved in the day-to-day operations of the business and the management of our leadership team of 8 within our team of 26. I am also a wife and a mother of 2 kids. Being a business owner and mother can be challenging at times but also very rewarding. What drives me is seeing others progress and grow, succeeding in life and professionally. I love helping people and other businesses elevate and strive to be better. I am currently a part of a business mentorship program for 2 other business’s and on the advisory board of the USA Screenprint Magazine. I actively am part of a business coaching and training community and frequently participate in their training events for sales, marketing, finance, management and personally development. Beyond this I love learning about anything through video’s, podcasts, group forums, etc. I am an advocate of females in business and really love seeing them strive and succeed. Personally, I am currently aiming to increase my physical health through fitness and nutrition which takes serious dedication and is hard some days but I know I will be rewarded with the outcome I desire if I stick to it.

DANIEL EDWARDS | POSTERBOY PRINTING

He joined the print industry in 2002 as a junior graphic designer and founded Posterboy Printing in 2006. Specialising in point-of-sale printing, he has worked with companies such as Westfield, Billabong, Foxtel and Coca-Cola, completing projects such as nationwide distributions, installations, mailouts, scratchies and posters. When Posterboy ground to a halt during the pandemic, he spent the downtime writing a book, ‘The Power of Print’ where he tried to define what makes great print great and where he came up with Six Principles of Print Design.

When work started again, he used these principles to analyse every job and make suggestions. The results have been increasing invoices and longer lead times. He believes that the rising tide raises all boats and he continues to share his passion for print, and his principles to empower print sellers and buyers to create exciting pieces, elevate the industry's profile, draw new talent, and invigorate existing talent.

BIANCA MARTIN | IVE GROUP

Currently working as the Commercial Manager for IVE Group in the Retail Display Victoria division.  She joined the Display in 2016 as a Key Account Manager and has taken on a couple of different responsibilities as Client Services Manager through to her current role which has helped satisfy her thirst for knowledge and a need to better understand the business at an operational level.  She’s extremely passionate about the team members around her and strives to improve their knowledge and the application of processes, but also seeks to understand and overcome any roadblocks that they may face; her aim is to increase their effectiveness and overall job satisfaction. 

GLEN MACKELLIN | HVG

Glen is a result driven professional with over 20 years sales, business development, account management and team leadership experience. Throughout this time he’s delivered growth and nurtured existing client relationships across a range of highly competitive industries including print production and communication industry. He admits that he enjoys the challenge of working in a high pressure, time sensitive environment to ensure that agreed organisational goals, budgets and KPI’s are delivered. He strategically and proactively drives sales growth and profits by utilising his natural communication and relationship building skill sets and by actively anticipating and responding to client needs. He thrives on mentoring people and supporting them to achieve their personal objectives.