Steve Lee Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

The judging panel for the Label Industry Global Awards 2012 met recently to review the nominations and is pleased to announce that Steve Lee is the winner of the R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award. Lee is the vice president of technology at RotoMetrics. The award is sponsored by Avery Dennison.
Lee has been a shaping force in the label and tag industry over a 35-year career in the design and manufacture of rotary tooling. The judging panel said that Lee helped grow RotoMetrics from a small, low-tech die supplier in a fledgling industry to being a global, full-service supplier of a broad portfolio of products designed around converter needs.

Lee has been credited for his role in getting the industry to work together to develop and spread the use of pressure sensitive labels worldwide. He has played an active role in industry associations, especially TLMI, where he has served on the board multiple times and acts as chairman of the TLMI Annual Label Awards Competition. The judges added that his guidance in developing new solutions has maximized the ability of converters to produce world-class products for their end users.

During the same meeting, the judges also selected the winners of the three other categories, who will be announced at the awards ceremony and gala dinner at Chicago’s prestigious Aragon Ballroom during the first evening (11 September) of Labelexpo Americas 2012. A limited number of award ceremony tickets are still available. Reservations can be made at www.labelawards.com with individual tickets priced at $150 and tables of 10 at $1,400.

The 2012 finalists are:

Label Industry Award for New Innovation (in alphabetical order):
- AVT – Advanced Vision Technology
- EFI
- IPE - Innovaciones Para Etiquetajes

Label Industry Award for Continuous Innovation – sponsored by Labels & Labeling, Label & Narrow Web and NarroWebTech (in alphabetical order):
- Prati
- Stork Prints
- WS Packaging

Converter Award for Sustainability/Environmental Responsibility– sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web
A shortlist will not be published for this award, but the winner will be announced at the same time as the other awards.

The judging panel was chaired by Mike Fairley, director of strategic development for the Labelexpo Global Series and consisted of Kurt Walker, president of FINAT, Art Yerecic, TLMI chairman, Andy Thomas, group managing editor of Labels & Labeling, Steve Katz, editor of Label & Narrow Web and Tony White, editor of NarroWebTech.