The Independent Print Industry Association (IPIA) has welcomed three new members onto its council in order to help ‘steer the organisation and enable it to meet its objectives.’
Tim Carter, a director at Ricoh, Matthew Ruff, sales and marketing director at Reliance Worldwide, and John Morley, a director at eProductivity Software (EPS) have all been all voted onto the council, bringing the total number of members to 17.
IPIA chairman Graeme Smith welcomed the trio by saying, ‘2022 marks an incredible year of growth for the IPIA and we’re excited by the energy, insight and diverse knowledge that Tim, Matthew and John bring. We’ve set ourselves some ambitious objectives and their input will be especially invaluable moving forward apace in areas like prioritising ESG, promoting the value of print as part of a channel mix and encouraging a younger and more diverse workforce into the sector.’
Mr Morley has worked in the print industry for many years and he sees part of his role within the IPIA as helping members be more successful at promoting print. He explained, ‘Using data to personalise the message is a real priority for print. Digital assets are valuable but the stats prove that the virtual and physical coming together adds greater value and response, so we need to keep pushing that message further upstream with brands, and I can help do that.’
Mr Ruff is not from a print background, but he has years of experience working with the British Standards Institution (BSI). He has pledged to help grow membership, and bring more diversity from sectors such as process management. He’s also keen to support quality management, explaining, ‘I’m not going audit heavy, just looking at ways to implement and improve, especially in areas like leaving more positive carbon footprints.’
Mr Carter brings with him decades of OEM technological know-how and a strong international network of people and companies. He commented, ‘I’m also pretty passionate about the legacy that we, the print industry, leave. I feel we all have a responsibility to promote our sector as dynamic, enjoyable and fruitful in order to attract and entice younger talent to want to invest their lives in it and make it successful too.’
