Blain’s
reprographics-industry involvement:
Blain was at
Rowley-Scher Reprographics from 1982 through 1985. Since I was also at Rowley-Scher during that
time-frame, I know firsthand that Blain is an exemplary person, an awesome
contributor and very adept at customer-relationship building. Rowley-Scher consisted of four different
companies that merged together back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s (not
including companies we bought outright.)
One of those companies was the one I originally joined in 1970 – based
in Silver Spring, MD. In my early days,
I managed that Silver Spring branch operation.
I was in charge of customer-service and production management. During
his time at R/S, Blain (among other responsibilities) took over management of
that branch location. Customer feedback
about Blain – nothing short of fantastic!
In 1986,
Blain (with partners) founded Topel Blueprinting (Topel Imaging), based in the
Washington, DC area. Topel was the first
reprographics enterprise in the Washington, DC metro area to go
“all-out-digital” and did so with a fleet of OCE 9800’s.
At the
beginning of 1998, Topel Blueprinting (Imaging) was merged into ABC Imaging.
And, Blain has been with ABC Imaging since then. Blain was a Vice President of ABC. During his tenure at ABC Imaging, his
involvement included management stints in these areas: Production, Operations,
Customer Service, Sales and he also did a lot of “project management” for the
enterprise, including opening new branch locations, integrating acquired
companies into ABC, recruiting, and FM (staffed and unstaffed “on-site”)
operations.
Many of
Blain’s former associates were shocked to learn that Blain had left ABC
Imaging. We thought that he would be
there forever. (What’s that old saying,
“nothing good lasts forever?)
Posts
While I've not known Blain nearly as long, I've had the pleasure of working under his leadership after he successfully recruited me.
ReplyDeleteIt's been my position that one is employed by a company, but one works for a leader. As such, it is not the reputation of a company that is the deciding factor for me (you can always fix corporate problems) it is the personal and professional integrity of a leader that I can team with...and in the case of Blain, his integrity (I know...I checked)and industry accomplishments made accepting his offer a no-brainer for me.
It's unfortunate we are not now on the same team.
Wishing Blain all the best, I know that any business will do well to bring him on board.