The PIAA has been rocked by the shock resignation of Future Print manager Joan Grace for undisclosed personal reasons as the successful project enters its second year.
Grace, who will leave her positions of PIAA general manager for innovation, training and employment, and state manager of Victoria and Tasmania after November 20, still had a year left on her three-year contract.
PIAA chief executive Bill Healey says Grace’s sudden resignation came after she returned from a couple of weeks off for annual leave.
“It was a surprise and I am disappointed with her decision to not finish her contract because we brought her to Australia and gave her this role,” he says.
“However, we accept that she feels it is in her best interests and we wish her all the best.”
Healey would not shed any light on the reasons for Grace’s departure except to say ‘I guess she found it heavy going’, and to stress that she was in no way pushed out by the association.
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Grace moved to Australia from New Zealand in 2012, where she was chief executive of PrintNZ, after her husband got a job in the electricity sector in Melbourne.
She was originally hired to run a registered training organisation the PIAA was planning to buy, and only after this fell through was she tapped to set up Future Print.
The sudden resignation has prompted a management shakeup at Future Print, with former Ricoh Printing Innovation Centre manager Michelle Lees, and ex-director of the RMIT International Centre for Graphic Technology Robert Black recruited to take over Grace’s day-to-day responsibilities with the Future Print management committee overseeing strategic direction.
Grace’s departure comes as Future Print expands its scope to include online training modules and programs to encourage school leavers to take up jobs in print.
“Pathways to encourage school students into industry careers will be created as part of a school-to-work transitioning program that will include exploration of expanding the scope of higher education qualifications for successful apprentices,” the PIAA says.
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Grace, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment but released a long statement this morning reflecting on the progress of Future Print and thanking those involved, without saying anything about why she is resigning.
“These projects are now well established and ahead of target, making the decision to leave an easier one,” she says.
“An industry cannot be transformed from the ‘top down’ – real change is made by the individuals, in their own businesses, making decisions, day after day, week after week, year after year.
“The decision makers who are taking a proactive approach to transforming their businesses to meet the market are the ones who ultimately will change the focus and future of our industry, and it’s been a privilege to help resource them in this important transition phase.”
Grace does not appear to have a new job lined up, saying she is ‘looking forward to having the first really substantial break in my working life and to the new opportunities which I’m sure will come my way in the future, whether in print or in a completely new sphere’.
Victoria and Tasmania member services manager Jenny Berry will take over Grace’s state manager role in those states on an acting basis.
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