Label Industry Global Awards Announce Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

BRUSSELS, Belgium—A panel of label industry experts has reviewed the votes for the Label Industry Global Awards and announced the winner of the R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement category. Andrew Jack from Dow Corning was selected as the overall winner by the international label industry judging panel at the FINAT World Congress in Berlin following a review of the online votes against the Awards criteria. This prestigious Award category is sponsored by Avery Dennison in the year which marks the 100th year since the birth of Stan Avery.

Andrew Jack has a career spanning over thirty-five years in the silicone industry, firstly with Midland Silicones and then with Dow Corning Corporation. As a Global Account Technical Manager in Dow Corning’s global business unit responsible for the development and application of silicone release systems for the pressure-sensitive adhesive industry, Andrew has for many years been at the forefront of Dow Corning’s pioneering products in solventless silicones, water-based silicones and, more recently, the provision of advanced cost-effective products that offer improvements in applied silicone costs.

Chairman of the judging panel, Mike Fairley, commented, “Andrew Jack joined the pressure-sensitive industry in the early 1980s and has made a major impact over the years on the world of labels through his contributions to silicone release technology, and to the work of FINAT and the development of global standards. The judges felt that he exemplified all the requirements of the Lifetime Achievement Award criteria and were enthusiastic in announcing him as the 2007 winner. We look forward to celebrating with Andrew and the rest of the industry at the Awards’ evening on the first night of Labelexpo Europe.”

In 1985, he was responsible for the opening of a new Dow Corning application laboratory in Belgium, which also involved moving the Technical Service Department from England. This laboratory has become one of the benchmarks of the pressure-sensitive industry and the main silicone technical service center in Europe, with Andrew traveling all over the world in pursuit of global standards and product excellence in the label business, as well as speaking at many of the industry’s conferences.

A Chartered Scientist, Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Andrew recently stood down after nine years as Chairman of the FINAT Technical Committee - a period under his chairmanship in which the 6th and 7th editions of the FINAT Technical Handbook (Test Methods), were produced, including a Chinese edition.

He is a member of the FINAT Board and was in 2006 awarded Honorable Life Membership of the Association. He remains on the FINAT Technical Committee. Married with three children and two grandchildren, Andrew has been back in the United Kingdom for the past ten years and lives near Cardiff.

Finalists in the other Award categories were also announced by the international judges. The winners of these categories will be revealed at the Label Industry Global Awards and Gala Dinner at Autoworld in Brussels, on the evening of the 26 September - the opening day of Labelexpo Europe 2007.

The 2007 finalists are:
European Converter of the Year - sponsored by XSYS Print Solutions
• Pago AG
• Schreiner Group
• Caposa Group

Label Industry Award for Continuous Innovation - sponsored by Labels & Labeling, NarroWebTech and Label & Narrow Web
• Rotometrics
• Rotoflex
• Dow Corning

Label Industry Award for New Innovation
• Stork Prints
• DiMS
• AVT

Judges for this year’s Awards under the chairmanship of Mike Fairley were David Harrison, President of FINAT; John Hickey, President of TLMI; Andy Thomas, Editor of Labels & Labeling; Jack Kenny, Editor of Label & Narrow Web; and Tony White, NarroWebTech.