Dave Nieman, a Three-Decade Supporter of FTA, Joins the FTA Hall of Fame

Impact on FTA

If Dave allowed his work life to overtake his personal life—not being there for a family vacation or one of Kristina’s soccer games—he wouldn’t be the first president and CEO of a company to do so. But as hard as he has worked to build his company, and as hard as he has worked to build his family, he has worked equally hard to never let the former get in the way of the latter.

“It’s obvious both of those elements were and are very important to Dave. It takes a lot of hard work to balance that, and not miss the birthdays and anniversaries and baseball games,” says FTA President Mark Cisternino. “A lot of guys blow off the personal side. Knowing that he wanted to excel in his business but maintain his personal life, that takes a lot of hard work.”

Maintaining a work/life balance is a very different thing today than it was decades ago. In 2019, being an active FTA member—as Dave is, doing things like serving on committees, attending webinars, writing for FLEXO Magazine—can be done almost entirely from anywhere with an internet connection. To participate in Forum & INFOFLEX and Fall Conference—as Dave does, doing things like sitting in on sessions, encouraging employees to give presentations, exhibiting—does require traveling, but usually means taking a direct flight to a city in the vicinity of a major airport, and not having to do it again for another six months.

In the 30 years Dave has been involved with FTA, he has assisted committees, attended events and held several positions on FTA and FFTA’s boards. “He provided his expert guidance to me under catastrophic conditions,” recalls FTA President Mark Cisternino. Presenting the FTA Distinguished Service Award to David Bankson (right) and Paul Lancelle (left). Center, enjoying a celebratory toast to FTA’s 50th anniversary, at Forum 2008. “I learned a lot from him as to how to handle situations during those times—He would often talk me off the figurative ledge,” says Lancelle, who served as FFTA chair during Dave’s tenure as FTA chair.

In the late 1980s, being an active FTA member—as Dave was personally and as APR has been since 1988—before the internet and email and MemberConnect, meant being physically present for meetings, networking opportunities and far more than a pair of annual events. Back then, there were as many as 40 “road show”-type regional workshops every year, a number of which were in places it made more sense to drive to, and Dave was frequently present for them.

“He was very involved in setting those up all over the country,” Mix recalls. “He saw the value in that.”

As those workshops were phased out, Dave over the following 30 years found plenty of other ways to be involved in the Association. He served on the FTA Board of Directors and FFTA Board of Trustees for two consecutive three-year terms spanning from 2004 to 2010, during which he was FTA Vice Chair, Suppliers (for three years) and FTA Board Chair (for two years). He was a member of the TEST Oversight Committee, worked on the FTA Strategic Planning Initiative, and provided guidance and direction to management in the formation of its Leadership Council. And his name has been synonymous with the FFTA Scholarship Committee for too long to remember.

Dave has kept his company equally involved in not only FTA’s goings on but also industry-wide activities. In recent years APR has sponsored a series of technical forums, staged open houses where live pressruns were conducted, participated in FLEXO Magazine print demo projects, and commissioned a narrow web converter survey speaking to challenges, trends and future directions—particularly the convergence of digital and flexo formats and the advent of hybridization.

In 2010, Cisternino bestowed on Dave his namesake FTA President’s Award. Ending the summary of Dave’s FTA service that appeared alongside the announcement in the May 2010 issue of FLEXO Magazine, the president offered a succinct nod to the new Hall of Famer’s 20 years of activity: “Thanks for always being there, my friend!

“He provided his expert guidance to me under catastrophic conditions,” Cisternino explains today, referring to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and resulting economic depression. “To this day, I remember a meeting we had where he was asking a lot of tough questions—fair questions, but a lot of tough questions about what we needed to do. As a result of those meetings, I got a lot more in tune with how to pull the Association up. He could have told me how to do it, or how he thought an association should be run, but instead through the discussions that we had, he kind of instilled confidence in me that we were going to be OK.”

Lancelle, who also served as a Board member and as FFTA Chair alongside Dave during that time, recalls that span as “lean years” and “a trying time.” He says Dave’s levelheadedness and business acumen were tremendously helpful in a period of extreme uncertainty. “I don’t think he’s ever received enough credit for what he did during those years,” Lancelle says. “I learned a lot from him as to how to handle situations during those times—He would often talk me off the figurative ledge.”

If it were not for FTA’s archives and the memories of people who have worked with Dave—if we had to rely on only his recollection of events—those contributions might never be known.

When given the chance in a 2008 FLEXO feature titled “View from the Chair” to reflect on his time as a part of FTA’s leadership bodies, he acknowledged none of what he had done, instead pointing to the work of everyone else as being the most important aspect: “The greatest satisfaction has come from working with a group of committed and talented industry professionals as a team, all seeking to give the organization ideas and leadership to wrestle with a number of difficult challenges facing it, as well as finding ways to increase its value to all members.”

In FTA’s Golden Anniversary Commemorative Journal celebrating its 50^th birthday, he reflected not on his work as a volunteer and supporter of the Association, but instead how it had helped him: “FTA has served as a major contributor to my career in flexo. I learned a great deal about the industry from attending and participating in numerous FTA-sponsored events, from local workshops and FFTA-sponsored seminars, to Annual Forums.”

And addressing the individuals with whom he rubbed elbows—some whom he can now call fellow Hall of Famers—he spoke as if they had not gotten from him as much as he had gotten from them: “I have had a chance to meet and interact with a number of leaders in our industry, many who I have looked up to as mentors and confidants, and some of whom are Hall of Fame members, such as Warren Taylor, Joe Trungale, John Shreve, Jerry Shields, Wray Peal and Dave Horsman. Without FTA, I am not sure I would have had the same opportunities to work alongside these and many other industry professionals.”

“He’s always preferred to be a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, but Dave has had a big impact on the Association over the years,” Lancelle concludes. “It goes back to the spotlight he puts on his people. He’s always been a big encourager of having employees get involved in Association activities and get the recognition for that as well.”

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