The Printing Industries Association of Australia has held its elections, organised by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), with five new members officially brought on to the board.

Kevin Pidgeon, co-founder, Lithocraft, will replace Ron Patterson in Victoria, while Martin Guilliamse, general manager of Moonah’s Mark Media beat out Peter Clark in a tied vote for the Tasmania position. Under the PIAA constitution, ties are solved with a toss of a coin, which came up in Guilliamse favour.

Guilliamse had also ran for the board in 2016, but was beaten out by Clark at the time.

Tom Eckersley, Theo Pettaras, and Richard Celarc ran unopposed, and will subsequently be inducted in on January 1 along with Pidgeon and Guilliamse. The board is filled out with Sarah Leo, John Georgantzakos, and Anthony Pittaway, who joined earlier this year, along with president Walter Kuhn.

Kevin Pidgeon, director, Lithocraft, says, “I am going in with an open mind. I want to find out more about it. I have been in the industry for a long time, I am 72, and have been with Lithocraft for 50 years next year.

“I want to give something back, and get young people more aware about what the industry does.

“First I want to learn how the PIAA works and take it from there.

“We have successfully instigated a succession plan, my older partner and I, which has been a positive experience. That has freed up a bit of time for me to work with the PIAA.”

Andrew Macaulay, CEO, Printing Industries, says, “The process is now complete and finished.

“The constitution requires us to have an election for nine board members, which we ran. We outsourced that to the AEC, an entirely independent process.

“They ran a nominations process, and the result is that we have had some prominent, well-respected printers step up, which is terrific.

“A couple of people stood for states, Tasmania and Victoria. In Victoria we had Kevin Pidgeon, the co-founder of Lithocraft, who is a terrific example of a lifelong printer who wants to give back to the industry.

“We want to thank Ron for his contribution on the board.

“In Tasmania, we had a fabulous board member who was highly regarded, Peter Clark, who was instrumental in providing some sound governance to the organisation from his years of experience in large and complex businesses in the print sector, and we want to thank him for his time on the board.

“The positions do not become effective until January, and the terms are two years.

“The ongoing board members have gone out of their way to encourage people to step out, and we have some terrific talent on the board as a consequence, which is exciting.”

Walter Kuhn, president, PIAA, says, “It is what we anticipated. It is what the succession planning is all about, we have encouraged people to be involved in the organisation again.

“This Association is an employer organisation, and it has a lot more strength when its members stand together, as one.

“The new appointments will help to achieve that. There is a good calibre of people on the board, with depth of knowledge on the industry, a depth of business knowledge, and a lot of passion for the industry as well."

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