ence, and a passion for the industry. How perfect for me! I was so excited to come back and be in a job where I was helping people and businesses. Do you feel there are enough women in the industry, and if not, how can we address this? Since returning in 2019 I have seen a great surge in younger women coming into the industry which is amazing to see. I was chatting to a packaging company the other week who told me 70% of their management team is female. This is a trend I’m seeing across the board. More than half of our 2022 Rising Star Awards winners were women, and we are seeing a high level of female applicants this year, too. We have some amazing organisations in our industry who do a great job in supporting and promoting women and I do believe it’s an exciting and interesting industry to be part of. It’s clear that lots has already been done to improve opportunities for women in our industry, but I know that more is possible. What’s your proudest career moment to date? This might be a bit sad to some people, but it was my first HP Indigo deal I closed. I didn’t celebrate until the press was commissioned and my commission came in (as my experienced colleagues advised!), but the feeling of the hard work paying off made me proud of myself. On reflection, I thought at the time I should have been braver earlier in my career to go into sales, as it’s an amazing rollercoaster of a job to do and the experience is life-changing. How did you come to be in the print and paper industry, and what has your career looked like to date? I think as most people do, I fell into the print industry. I graduated from University and saw a Junior Account Executive job advertised on a local Graduates job site. I started working in the Bluetree Design & Print original POS brand and worked my way around Account Exec, Estimator, Client Services Manager, Account Manager, and then Key Account Manager. When the business decided to close the brand I moved over to Route 1 Print in a variety of roles but most recently Head of Sales and Integrations. When Bluetree acquired Kingsbury Press I was sent over to help manage the acquisition before being promoted to Deputy General Manager. Do you feel there are enough women in the industry, and if not, how can we address this? I think we’ve definitely seen a change. I can remember in my earlier days of attending events I’d usually be one of just a small handful of women in attendance. In recent times this has certainly improved however we are definitely part of the minority still. I think what’s helped me over the years are the strong and inspirational women in print I’ve met, they’ve certainly steered and supported me over the years and I’m incredibly grateful for those connections. Now I have a few years under my belt I try to do the same for newcomers to the industry! Introducing myself and offering support where I can do, increasing my network and bringing others into it, hopefully strengthening their connections with the industry. I rave about the print industry to anyone who will listen, especially other women. I think the only way we increase the number of women in print is by making it a great place for a woman to be and then shouting about it! What’s your proudest career moment to date? In my time at Bluetree there have been so many proud moments it’s difficult to choose. I think the recent ones always stick in your mind and making the move to Kingsbury was something I was really proud of. I went from being an expert in my field (over at Route 1 Print) where I knew the products, the clients, and the various routes to market to moving to an entirely new part of the industry with its own language! I remember sitting in my first production meeting and wondering what on earth a book block was and listening to conversations around swiss binding thinking I’d probably made a mistake! 12 months later and it’s a whole different story, the team here have been so welcoming and they’re so passionate about what they do and eager to share their knowledge, it’s enabled me to become pretty confident! There’s still tonnes to learn and I imagine with the wonderful and unique products we help our clients produce this knowledge journey is going to be a long one, but I’m proud I took the leap out of my comfort zone and embraced a new challenge. I stood on stage with our Sales Director earlier this year to collect the coveted ‘Book of the Year’ award and that made me feel incredibly proud of the whole Kingsbury team and the part I’ve been fortunate enough to play in it. Holly Steedman, business and technology development director at IST INTECH Sarah Kilcoyne-Guilliam, deputy general manager at Kingsbury Press (Bluetree Group) FOCUS ON / WOMEN IN PRINT 36 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk May / June 2023 - Issue 342 I rave about the print industry to anyone who will listen, especially other women. I think the only way we increase the number of women in print is by making it a great place for a woman to be and then shouting about it!
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjM0NDIxOA==