Above: Jacinta Allen (Breen Printing) and Matt Aitken (IVE Group)

Jacinta Allen, graphics prepress co-ordinator at Breen Printing, was named the recipient of the inaugural Geoff Selig scholarship, which was presented at the 2024 ProPrint Awards.

Held on Friday 25 October 2024 at the Shangri-La Sydney, the ProPrint Awards celebrated and honoured excellence in the Australian printing industry. This year’s event reported record numbers, with more than 365 guests in attendance.

Geoff Selig, who tragically passed away earlier this year, was the former executive chairman of IVE Group, and at the 2023 ProPrint Awards he was recognised with the peer-voted Industry Achievement Award for service to the industry.

The scholarship is dedicated to Geoff’s passion for encouraging emerging talent within the industry, and his desire to see people grow and thrive as well as the enjoyment he received from seeing people develop and succeed.

The scholarship provides a financial value of up to $10,000 for personal and professional development and is funded jointly by ProPrint and IVE Group.

All finalists for this year’s 2024 ProPrint Awards Emerging 50 category (excluding IVE staff) were eligible to enter, and were asked to answer three questions based on how the financial award will improve themselves, their employer, and the industry as a whole.  

“Geoff was third generation from the Selig family in our business and he was a pioneer in the industry for over 40 years,” said IVE Group managing director, Matt Aitken, at the ProPrint Awards.

“IVE would not be where it is today with Geoff’s vision, courage, and passion for our people, our staff, and our clients.

“To recognise Geoff’s contribution to the industry we have announced three scholarships on an annual basis. Two of those are for IVE staff, and the third is the one that we are announcing for the first time here tonight.

“I want to acknowledge James Wells and Carmen Ciappara from the Intermedia Group for partnering with us on this award. Geoff was always really passionate about this event [the ProPrint Awards] and what the Intermedia team has done for our industry.

“It’s bittersweet that 12 months ago he was standing here receiving the Industry Achievement Award. These three scholarships are centred around Geoff’s love of people, our staff, and the industry. His want for people to always grow and thrive and the enjoyment he got out seeing people develop and succeed with life.

“There are so many stories that I could tell about Geoff because our workplace with Geoff in it always had humour, happiness, and no matter your role, you could always have a joke with him and the staff loved that.

“Geoff brought passion, commitment, and energy. He was a true visionary in our industry. He cared deeply about all people, particularly our staff, and was an incredible leader, colleague, mentor, and a friend to many.

“I want to say thank you to everyone in the room tonight for your support this year when Geoff passed and thank you for your support of this award. It’s great to have you all here with us tonight to celebrate the recipient of the inaugural Geoff Selig Scholarship.”

Aitken said the quality of responses from the Emerging 50 nominees was outstanding.

“It was a very tough decision. It was really pleasing to see the high number of submissions for the scholarship and the quality of responses,” he said.

ProPrint and Printer Media Group managing director, James Wells, said the large volume of scholarship applications from the Emerging 50 nominees made the judging process very difficult.

“It was clear, however, upon closer examination that Jacinta’s short-term and medium-term career aspirations represented the most comprehensive list of activities supporting the growth of herself and her employer in both a personal and professional capacity,” said Wells.

“Congratulations Jacinta on behalf of the ProPrint team and the broader Printer Media Group. You are a truly worthwhile recipient of the inaugural Geoff Selig Scholarship. To those applicants who were unsuccessful, we look forward to supporting this scholarship again in conjunction with the IVE Group and we will be opening nominations for next year’s award in early 2025.”

Accepting her award, Jacinta Allen said: “Thank you to IVE Group, ProPrint, and the memory of Geoff Selig for making such an amazing scholarship available. I am overwhelmed and not sure how to put my gratitude into words so I hope that I can show you all what I do with this.”

Read more about the 2024 ProPrint Awards in the upcoming December issue of ProPrint magazine.

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