The Xinet Users Group Board of Directors is made up solely of user volunteers. If you would like information about how to participate on the Board or our committees, please contact the XUG office.

President

Scott PelliconeScott Pellicone is Vice President of Digital Publishing Business Development for the magazine division of Quebecor World, in New York City. Quebecor World is a global commercial print and media communications company that offers various print and related communications services including the printing of books, magazines, directories, retail inserts, catalogs, creative services, premedia, logistics and direct mail.

Scott has more than 20 years' experience in prepress and print manufacturing, as well as a Finance degree from The George Washington University, in Washington, DC.

QW Premedia operates using a convergence strategy to manage its customers' value chain through technology.

"Quebecor World has standardized our entire premedia platform on Xinet products to create efficiencies in our workflow processes, reduce cost and cycle times for our customers, as well as to manage our clients' digital assets in a simple yet elegant user interface. We have more than 30 Xinet licenses in prepress and print production throughout the world. Further details can be found on Xinet's own website in their profile of our operation."

A dedicated users-group volunteer, Scott served as President of the Dalim Users Organization from 2002 to 2004. In deciding to take a leadership role within the Xinet Users Group, Scott will be looking to help build "a well-integrated community of Xinet users who can communicate needs, wants and best practices back to Xinet to aid in the further development of this great software product."

Secretary

Michael IuloMichael Iulo has very recently changed jobs. Please check this space for an update describing his new position.

"I spent the first five years of my career--my teen years--working in a direct-mail print shop. I swept the floors, stuffed envelopes, loaded paper into presses, worked in prepress, worked on presses. I did whatever they needed me to do. That experience gave me the fundamentals for the work I've done every day since then."

Michael then moved into executing complex direct marketing programs for clients such as Merrill Lynch, Hewlett Packard, MCI, Bell Atlantic, Nikon, Saab, the Berger Funds, The New York Times and several pharmaceutical clients, working on behalf of MacMillan Publishing (became Newbridge Communications), Fox Pavlika, Foote Cone & Belding, and Bozell Worldwide.

He then spent six years at J. Brown, the channel marketing agency for Grey Advertising, as Director of Production Services.

"This responsibility included heading up our prepress department, which was doing slightly more than $250,000 in business with just three people. We had operators working two computers because of how long it would take files to save across the network and print documents. One document could take up to 45 minutes to RIP and print or save. I had nightmares with task bars in them. Every day there was a line of people waiting for their documents to print. Fast-forward to three years after the installation of Xinet: We had a department that billed over $1 million with just five people (prepress profitability was at an all time high). Operators only needed one computer. Operators loved their jobs, no document ever took more then a minute to print, and task bars were nearly eliminated."

"I got involved with XUG because the Xinet product literally changed my career. I couldn't believe how many people didn't know about the product and how many misconceptions there were about how the product worked. When I first got involved with XUG during its earliest formative stage in the summer of 2005, I saw that there were so many opportunities for companies to increase their productivity and make their jobs a little more manageable.

"Nearly 7 years since my deployment of Xinet at J.Brown, I see the mission of XUG evolving. There is now a large community of users. I've been fortunate enough to see how different users have evolved with their installations and I'm always amazed at how each installation is unique and puts a new use to Xinet that I never considered. Add to that the development of products by the integrators and third party developers, and the possibilities seem endless. That being said, I see XUG as a forum where users, integrators and developers can meet on a daily basis to share ideas, problems and solutions--a forum where new ideas, uses and products will develop from the best practices of XUG members."

Treasurer

Dan LorenziniDan Lorenzini most recently served as Director of Prepress for Yes Solutions, a division of Bookspan, in Garden City, New York. Bookspan, a division of Bertelsmann AG's Direct Group, is the parent company of Doubleday Entertainment, the leading marketer of book clubs and merchandise via direct mail and e-commerce in the United States, and Yes Solutions, which provides production services to both Doubleday Entertainment and to commercial clients outside the corporate family. Doubleday Entertainment's brand line includes such well-known book clubs as the Book of the Month Club, The Literary Guild, The Quality Paperback Book Club, and dozens more general and specialty clubs.

Dan's responsibility included overseeing the workflow technology and infrastructure supporting all Doubleday Entertainment book club marketing and fulfillment efforts.

Prior to joining Yes Solutions, Dan worked in various hands-on applications roles for Hell Graphics and Linotype-Hell, where he was involved with assisting clients in their move from conventional lithography to electronic prepress to desktop publishing integration at some of the largest printers and color houses in the United States.

Dan attended Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on a football scholarship and broke into our industry as a photojournalist. Over the course of his diverse career, Dan has been involved in users-group activities before and is looking forward to building the Xinet Users Group into a productive, user-focused learning and networking association.

Directors

Nick GowlerNick Gowler is the Xinet User Group's first Board member to be based in the UK. He began his career as an apprentice reprographic film planner and plate maker. During his apprenticeship he earned the opportunity to become a Hell Chromacom page-makeup system op. When this system reached the end of its life he moved to the Xyvision Contex page-makeup system, as well as the Mac and all its advanced graphic arts applications.

Eventually Nick took a position with Xyvision for two years as an application trainer, travelling across Europe. After Xyvision he joined a renowned repro company as studio manager, running their in-house advertising agency repro studio. After seven years of agency life, Nick joined the UK’s most prestigious retouching company and ran their high-end studio, dealing mostly with photographers.

Nick is currently with Pearson Education UK as their in-house application and workflow specialist. Pearson is one of the largest textbook publishers in the world. His main responsibilities are to review, implement, train and technically support “best practice” and “standards” for the in-house design teams, production teams, freelancers, European colleagues and worldwide vendors with regard to design through to print production.

Nick has been a Xinet user over the last nine years, having implemented three installs in different employments. Pearson Ed UK’s current Xinet investment is quite substantial. Their Xinet investment is to provide a base foundation of technology for all print production, on which the firm can grow and mature, adding sophistication along the way. Their base foundation of technology is key to their future workflow and efficiency: no foundation, no workflow!

Vincent LeggVincent Legg is a senior executive in the financial operations division in Euro RSCG Worldwide, a leading integrated marketing communications agency made up of 233 offices located in 75 countries throughout Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Euro RSCG, named 2006 Global Agency of The Year by Advertising Age magazine, provides advertising, marketing services, corporate communications, and interactive solutions to global clients. Some of the agency’s client roster includes Airbus, Air France, Charles Schwab, Danone Group, Diageo, IBM, Jaguar, L'Oréal, Peugeot, Reckitt Benckiser, Sanofi-Aventis, Schering-Plough, Verizon and Volvo.

Vincent has an in-depth knowledge of all aspects of advertising, having managed many different departments during his distinguished career. He has worked in various capacities such as Art Director, Studio Manager, IT Director, Director of Interactive and most recently as Director of Operations. He has been the driving force for the multiple implementations of Xinet throughout the Euro RSCG network of advertising agencies. “I have always believed that great companies start with great people, and the second most important factor is using technology to improve the process to allow the people to be even greater. Xinet is the type of tactical product that gives our people more time to be strategic, which is ultimately what separates the best companies from the ones that are almost the best.”

Vincent is a leader in developing Financial ERP systems and Business Workflow Applications for the advertising industry such as Xinet, SAP, PeopleSoft, Hyperwave Portal, Salesforce and Encoda. He has spent a great deal of time over the past few years using technology to integrate the creative and finance divisions together while always making sure to maximize ROI on all technology initiatives. “I worked my way up through the creative, production and studio ranks of the advertising and publishing world, and it has given me firsthand knowledge of how important it is to have solid fundamentals in all aspects of the workflow process. Xinet gave us the tools for a better business right out of the box, and it now allows us to build and expand on that tool set as new client needs arise.” Vincent is excited to help engage and grow the User Group community to share our knowledge to allow all of us to become true champions of our own Xinet implementations.

Sam MooreSam Moore is Director of Marketing Technology for N-GEN Studios, a division of advertising/marketing agency TracyLocke, in Wilton, Connecticut. Sam's areas of expertise include graphic arts production, DAM, workflow re-engineering, and web application development.

Sam is responsible for long-term strategy, business development, revenue growth, partnerships and client relationships for the N-GEN Interactive group of TracyLocke. He leads in leveraging technology that supports and builds marketing communications capabilities for clients as well as for N-GEN Studios' internal needs. These capabilities include Digital Asset Management, OnLine Creative Customization, Virtual Workflow Applications, and numerous other technology-based business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing solutions. TracyLocke's Xinet integration is detailed in a profile on Xinet's website.

"Xinet is critical to our page assembly and hi-res execution workflow. It's also used for DAM and asset distribution for international clients. In addition, it's integrated with our Aprimo Marketing MOM solution. Xinet's stability and success have prompted us to standardize on it across all of our offices. It's in two locations currently, but we're expanding that to four in 2007. We have 350 internal and 800 external users currently; 350 additional internal users will be added in 2007. We'll also be adding video and Office document support in 2007.

"Marketing creates vast image handling issues, and downward pressure on price mandates that these issues be handled as automatically as possible. Xinet is part of our vision for creating the studio of the future via workflow automation and server-side collaboration. As one of the founding members of the Xinet Users Group, I'm looking forward to sharing best practices and advice, expanding my contacts, and having greater influence with Xinet and integrators."

Ricky SilbergRicky Silberg is IT Director of Macintosh Services for Young & Rubicam Brands, in New York City. Young & Rubicam Brands is the corporate entity that oversees 346 advertising and PR agency subsidiary sites around the world. Some of Young & Rubicam's best known brands include Y&R itself, Landor Associates, Wunderman, and Burson-Marsteller. The company has numerous Xinet installations in many of its production sites.

"We have been able to use Xinet to improve our workflow. The use of FPO and WebNative alone have cut countless man-hours and delivered a timely method for distribution of both internal and client-related materials." More information about Y&R's Xinet implementation can be found in the profile on Xinet's website.

Ricky's background includes a full range of responsibilities in LAN/WAN, hardware and software installation, and administration of mainframe and PC environments. At Y&R Brands he is responsible for providing support and staff for the end users, developing an electronic worldwide workflow, and testing and implementation of software and hardware.

During the Xinet User Group's startup period, Ricky has been particularly helpful as one of the primary drivers of our Technology Committee.

In addition, Ricky has been teaching for 15 years at the Academy of Advanced Science and Technology, a magnet high school in Bergen County, New Jersey. He has taught digital photography, database creation, and web publishing. He has also taught computer courses at Passaic County Community College, in Paterson, New Jersey, and has conducted seminars on the internet for their Continuing Education Center.

Advisory Member (Nonvoting)

Past President

Eric HegdahlEric Hegdahl is Marketing Technology Officer for the Graphic Systems Group, in New York City. Graphic Systems Group (GSG) is considered to be the largest production agency in the United States. GSG is renowned for its work with many of New York's most prominent marketers, including Major League Baseball, Citibank, Elizabeth Arden, Maybelline, Revlon, Estée Lauder, NBC, and Aéropostale.

Eric has over 15 years of technical and prepress experience in the graphic arts and printing industry. He is responsible for assisting clients in optimizing workflow efficiencies through training and education. "I try to provide a better understanding in how marrying business process management with technology can enhance the impact of their marketing campaigns. My goal is to simplify processes and drive down costs, reduce delays, and maximize efficiency."

Internally, Eric drives an ongoing assessment of best practices to ensure that GSG is meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Eric considers his role at GSG to be that of a "technology diplomat," as well as evangelist and educator, to interface with the clients and guide them on how to increase cost savings through efficiencies in production and workflow, time-savings though streamlining and technology facilitation, and ease-of-operations through simplified remote project management and monitoring.

"At GSG we heavily rely on the spooler function of Xinet and Flashnet for archiving and retrieval. Facing outward to our clients we use WebNative. In addition we employ BrandCentral and CreativeBanks from NAPC that let us create more dynamic interfacing for the client experience. We're getting more and more requests to implement asset management, and these features help greatly."

Eric is a graduate in Graphic Communications from Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts. He has devoted his career to printing and publishing technologies. In addition to his volunteer responsibilities as Secretary on the XUG Board of Directors, Eric is also an active member of several industry associations including IDEAlliance, P3 (Partnership in Print Production), and The Advertising Production Club of New York, a trade association for professionals and students in the graphic communications industry. He also teaches graphic arts-related courses at the City University of New York's College of Technology in Brooklyn. In his "spare time," Eric also serves as Commissioner on his community's Youth Soccer Club.

Eric was one of just a handful of Xinet users who stepped up to help form the Xinet Users Group. He sees the formation of a large, strong group as an important goal for Xinet users everywhere. "For those of us on the production side, Xinet automates and streamlines workflow tasks. Collectively I'd like to hear a stronger, unified voice from the group to facilitate change and help evolve the product. I think together we can help solve some of each other's problems and build a community that spans different industries.