Picon’s Robert Flather elected as global print president

Print Solutions at drupa

Robert Flather, chairman of Picon, has been elected president of Global Print, the international federation of printing equipment manufacturing associations. He succeeds Jiangou Xu, chairman of PEIAC, the association of Chinese manufacturers, whose two year presidency culminated with drupa 2016.

Created in 2006, Global Print comprises ten national associations from Asia, Europe and the United States. Its objective is to further the common interests and mutual understanding of manufacturers of printing, papermaking and converting machinery, equipment and consumables. Picon is the member association for the UK.

‘The presidency of Global Print is a great honour, not only for me but also for Picon,’ said Robert Flather. ‘I would like to thank my predecessor Jiangou Xu for his excellent work maintaining and furthering Global Print’s role as the unified voice of national organisations representing thousands of companies and over 250,000 employees. I look forward to continuing his work, particularly with regard to collating and exchanging information about the changing market trends in our fast changing industry.

‘The variety of impressive technologies and creative printed applications shown here at drupa 2016 are very exciting. The print industry may be facing challenging times but it is not a sunset industry and it will have to embrace this new technology and adapt in order to survive. But, at the same time, it is important too that the industry focuses on attracting bright young talent to take it forward into the future.

‘Global Print also plays an important role in coordinating the busy calendar of international exhibitions to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of exhibitors and visitors alike. This is especially necessary with Ipex, IGAS and drupa moving to a three yearly cycle in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.’

(Ipex 2017 will take place at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, from 31 October to 3 November 2017.)