Further changes at our former company, NGI (an update to a previous post)

On Friday December 10, 2010, I did a post on the blog that talked about the changes at my former company (NGI) since the company was purchased by ARC in mid December 2007 and to acknowledge the contributions made by former NGI-ers.

Another four months have passed since that post, and I’m now going to “update” that post to reflect additional changes and to say a few things about the most recent “departees”. To make it easier to write today’s post, I’ve copied the December 10^th post into this one; anything newly added (today) appears in red type.

Please note that the article below mentions the name, "NGI". On January 1st, 2011, ARC changed the name of our former company, NGI, to ARC.

From FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2010 (updated April 13, 2011)

NGI (National Graphic Imaging) - acknowledgements

Next week will mark the 3rd anniversary of ARC's purchase of NGI (National Graphic Imaging), and, wow, there have been a lot of changes in the ranks since NGI became an ARC-owned company.

ARC purchased NGI one month after the recession started, but who knew then that the recession had started and who had any idea that the A/E/C industry and the Reprographics industry would be impacted as harshly as what's happened because of the "Great" Recession.

NGI (National Graphic Imaging) was sold to ARC in December 2007. NGI was a powerhouse operation in Florida, with operations in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ocala and plans to establish operations in South Florida. NGI also conducted operations in Atlanta. Even though ARC owned operations in Florida and Georgia before ARC acquired NGI, NGI was, evidently, a key target for ARC. Sometime after ARC acquired NGI, NGI absorbed into its operations the other ARC owned brands in NGI’s Florida markets, including TRS (Tampa, St Pete, Clearwater) and Orlando Reprographics (Orlando.) Not long after ARC acquired NGI, Greg Williams, President of NGI assumed the role of President of ARC’s Florida operations, including T-Square in South Florida.

As that saying goes, “that was then and this is now”, times have changed. Today, NGI is predominately managed by ex Ridgway’s employees (Ridgway’s is another reprographics enterprise ARC purchased, several years before ARC purchased NGI.) All of NGI’s senior management team (with the exception of Martha Korman, former CEO of NGI and who is now a member of ARC’s Global Accounts team) are gone from NGI and ARC.

I would like to stop for a minute to acknowledge the former senior management team of NGI, the management team that created a powerhouse operation in Florida. Without the tireless efforts and dedication of this management team, NGI would not have become a powerhouse operation in Florida. None of the following people are still working for NGI or ARC:

Greg Williams – President & Chief Operating Officer

Craig Bell – Chief Technology Officer

Craig Hubbard – Chief Financial Officer

David Fitz – Controller

Tina Rodriguez – Assistant Controller

Pete Vassos – Vice President, Production/Customer Service Operations

Bob Paschal – Vice President, Sales & Marketing

Danny Kane – General Manager of Imaging Products Group (IPG), division of NGI

Nino Sibilla – Service Manager of Imaging Products Group (IPG), division of NGI

About Tina – you couldn’t meet a nicer person than Tina Rodriguez. A highly competent accountant. Whenever I had any questions about our numbers, Tina was always quick and accurate with the answers. The kind of person that you want in your accounting operations.

About Nino – one of the many excellent decisions our former President/COO, Greg Williams, made was the decision to recruit Nino to join the NGI team. Nino was brought on board to found our “equipment and service” business, which was called “Imaging Products Group / IPG”. Nino, who formerly worked for OCE’s service team before joining NGI’s team, was an outstanding contributor to NGI’s growth and success. Whenever you “put” Nino in front of an important customer, you knew that the feedback from the customer was going to be excellent! His technical knowledge was absolutely superb, and his customer relationship skills were, simply put, “off the charts.”

I would further like to acknowledge the fantastic contributions made by other former members of the NGI team, people who are no longer with NGI or ARC, for these were the people who operated “on the front lines” and made it all happen:

Former NGI Sales team members who are no longer with NGI or ARC:

Esther Leonard (Tampa)

Marie Mosely (Tampa)

Maureen Michel (Orlando)

Terri Davis (Jacksonville)

JD Loudermill (Jacksonville)

Collin Zucharelli (Atlanta)

About JD – JD was an absolute delight to work with. A true “veteran” of the reprographics wars. One of our customers in Jacksonville, Jack Diamond, was referred to as the “Mr. Jacksonville” of the Architecture community. That being the case, then JD was the “Mr. Jacksonville” of the Reprographer community. I don’t think that there was anyone in the Jacksonville A/E/C community who did not know and like JD Loudermill and who did not respect the efforts JD made on their behalf. It is good to have sales team members who are “advocates” for customers, and JD was certainly that type of sales team member. A towering 6’ 8” tall, JD always stood out in any crowd, not necessarily because of his height (I always felt like a midget when standing next to JD), but because of his outgoing, friendly personality. During my years with NGI, I made quite a number of sales calls with JD and was always amazed at how fond customers (and even prospects!) were of JD. I don’t know how you replace someone like JD.

Former Production Center Managers who are no longer with NGI or ARC:

Alex Prieto (Tampa Westshore)

Reggie Jackson (Atlanta)

Eric Cardona (Orlando)

Danny Landon (Jacksonville)

Rob Faiella (St Petersburg)

Randy Faiella (Tampa Downtown)

And, Program Managers who are no longer with NGI or ARC:

Dave Shives (Color Program Manager, NGI)

And, of course, I can’t forget to acknowledge the fantastic contributions made by other members of the NGI team who are still with NGI:

NGI Sales team members who are still with NGI:

Dave Powers (Orlando)

JD Loudermill (Jacksonville) (gone from NGI in April 2011, see above)

Production Center Managers who are still with NGI:

Robert Posada (Ocala)

And, Program Managers who are still with NGI:

Craig Sterner (FM Operations Manager)

As you can see, very few of the “core of NGI’s team” are still with NGI. Time marches on. Changes happen.

This post authored by Joel Salus, former Senior Vice President and Chief Business Strategist (aha!) at NGI