Federico D’Annunzio of BOBST Group has been chosen as the recipient of the R. Stanton Avery Global Achievement Award 2020. Sponsored by Avery Dennison, the R. Stanton Avery Global Achievement Award recognizes an innovation or idea that has helped transform and progress the label industry across the world. Bestowed in memory of Stan Avery’s pioneering spirit and values, the award reflects the global nature of the industry and recognizes the collective contributions of the many, as well as individuals. This is one of five Label Industry Global Awards categories.

D’Annunzio has reportedly been a passionate advocate of the digitization of the conventional label printing process. He joined the label industry at a time when 2-3 hrs were required to change jobs, and the operator was the master of quality. Today, with a combination of innovations that D’Annunzio has led, a complete job changeover takes around 1 min. Quality control is fully digitalized with a closed-loop system monitoring pressure, register, and color, all independent of the operator’s skill set.

An active member of FINAT for several years, D’Annunzio helped focus the association on new ideas and attracting new members. He led the setting up of REVO, a team of leading industry players cooperating to promote and optimize extended color gamut printing in the flexo label industry, allowing spot colors to be printed using a fixed seven-color ink system without changing inks between jobs. He was also instrumental in establishing the UVFoodSafe group, where key industry players worked together to promote the best practice in the use of UV inks in indirect food contact labels and flexible packaging applications.

This year’s international judging panel has also drawn up the shortlist for the other four awards (listed in alphabetical order):

The Award for Innovation (for companies with more than 300 employees)

• Avery Dennison
• HP Indigo
• Lenze SE
• Paper Machine Converting Co.

The Award for Innovation (for companies with up to 300 employees)

• GEW (EC) Limited
• GMG Color
• Tecnocut

The Rising Star Award (sponsored by the Label Academy and Avery Dennison)

• Andrew M. Boyd
• Elizabeth Yerecic
• Jesse Freitas
• Lindsey Muchka
• Vineeth Bhandari

The Environmental & Sustainability Award

• Avery Dennison
• Avery Dennison Brazil
• Phoseon Technology

“Once again, the judging panel was impressed by the high quality of entries to this year’s Label Industry Global Awards, so drawing up the shortlist was no easy task,” said Mike Fairley, founder of the Label Academy and chair of the judges. “Nevertheless, we unanimously agreed that Federico D’Annunzio was the stand-out choice for the prestigious R. Stanton Avery Global Achievement Award, with endorsements from all corners of the world.

“What really stood out for us was the wide range of Federico’s creative and innovative solutions that between them have had such an impact on the fast-changing world of label press design, productivity and performance. We look forward to honoring him and all our winners in September.”

All winners will be celebrated in a special online announcement in September. For more information, visit www.labelawards.com.