Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) announced the winners of this year’s President’s Awards, Sunday, April 27, during Foundation of FTA’s 2008 Annual Forum in Dallas, TX. FTA President Mark Cisternino said, "The selection process strives to recognize and thank a few individuals a year for their strong sense of volunteerism related to important industry initiatives. The 2008 recipients are:

Greg Collins, C-P Flexible Packaging, who Cisternino credited with having fulfilled his role as Strategic Planning Initiative (SPI) Chair with a great deal of persistence and fervor. 

"Greg accepted this challenging role last year as FTA launched Phase II of this important organizational endeavor to re-define the Association’s value to its membership. From the very beginning, Greg has demonstrated outstanding organizational skills in driving this project forward as he has worked tirelessly to broaden its industry recognition and acceptance through an intensely deliberate process of gaining a greater degree of FTA member involvement on the nine market-specific leadership councils. He has worked extremely hard to assure that the total project stays on course and on schedule as he works very closely with the core set of FTA board leadership that make up the SPI Management Team to assist the individual Councils and their leaders in the effective management of their respective groups."

The second President’s Award recipient is actually a first in that it recognizes a company “team” as opposed to an individual! The General Mills Brand Design Prepress Organization has developed a unique packaging graphics supply chain with their in-house photo studio, seven design partners, prepress partner and global print partners that pushes the capabilities of flexo printing to the limit. 

Cisternino remarked, "Some 10 years ago, with the release of the Premiere Edition of FIRST (Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances), General Mills made the internal decision that it was going to embrace this new industry document to the fullest, as it began incorporating FIRST principles within the company’s overall supply chain. The management tools and monitored metrics developed by the Prepress Organization, fully incorporating the FIRST doctrine, assure consistency and repeatability. Communication among the printer, prepress provider and the CPC has been described by chain members as 'superb.'"
 
In concluding the presentation, Cisternino acknowledged the presence of a 2007 honoree. "Anthony Dalleore from MacDermid Printing Solutions in Melbourne Australia has been a venerable flexo good will ambassador representing our friends 'down under' for the past 10 years. He serves the Australian Flexographic Technical Association (AFTA) as volunteer secretariat and has worked diligently to help position the industry training packages to help its membership increase its knowledge base in the Asia Pacific market. In striving to fulfill this ambition, Tony sees it as a personal goal to bring the worldwide FTA associations closer in line with each other to send a unified message to the flexographic industry."