6 December 2017

Industry veteran, Dan Dean retires

Dan Dean, a member of our North East Regional Board is retiring from the industry. The BPIF would like to say a huge thank you to Dan, who has been an invaluable asset and contributed so much over the past 30 years.

"At Christmas, I am retiring from the industry I have worked in and loved for 46 years. In the main I have worked with hundreds of dedicated and enthusiastic people, at great forward-thinking and ever-changing companies. They were Garnett Dickinson, De Lisle Group, Wyndeham Gait and finally the Brilliant B&B Press. All gave me great opportunities and challenges along the way. The sales and marketing part of my role here will be carried out by Dave Stones as Sales & Marketing Director from November.

"I started in a composing room that Guttenberg would have recognised and moved from letterpress to litho, from paper proofs to faxes to emails, seen the arrival of the Apple Mac and internet and the departure of the unions. Managed litho, web, wide format and digital production. Purchased Heidelberg's, Roland's, Mullers, Stahl's, and countless other bits of wonderful kit. I've overseen ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001 and investors in people systems and been audited more times than I care to remember.

"Other than working with great teams of internal people, I have enjoyed working with a fantastically varied and wonderful set of customers. Hopefully building relationships that withstood the inevitable problems that always come along when manufacturing anything.

"Finally, I have been an active participant in the British Printing Industries Federation since joining as a YMP (young managing printer) in the early 80's. I have chaired the regional YMP board, regional board in the North East and Periodical Printer's special interest section twice. I have been on national conference committees, the government & industry committee, national board and a non-executive director for three years. I have seen and been part of the BPIF changing from an old boy's club to the vibrant forward-thinking organisation it is today and been delighted to be part of it, meeting some fantastic enthusiasts for our industry along the way. I was part of the first BPIF Diploma cohort in the early 1990's and thoroughly enjoyed being made one of the first Fellows of the federation a few years ago.

"So as this last page of this wonderful book closes, I would like to say a massive thank you to anyone and everyone I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with."