Lifetime Achievement Award winner announced

Meeting at the FINAT World Congress in Paris on 17 June, the international judging panel for the Label Industry Global Awards 2008 selected the winner of the R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award. Neil McDonough, president of FLEXcon Company, received the most online votes and has won the award.

The president of FLEXcon Company, a global polymeric coater and provider of pressure-sensitive films and adhesive products, Neil McDonough has dedicated a quarter of a century to the label industry and has always been a force of inspiration to his colleagues and peers. Before becoming president of FLEXcon in 1990 McDonough held a variety of positions in manufacturing, sales, and management, including director of marketing.

Among the innovations he fostered as president was the 'no-label' look for glass bottle labeling with Clearly Canadian in the 1990s – a concept that is now a staple of the labeling industry.

In recent years, McDonough has led the initiative to provide more choices to label converters and other customers through the development of FLEXcon's Value-Better-Supreme (VBS) product offering, which features the industry's widest selection of proven, readily available products for the most popular labeling applications. Today FLEXcon supplies an almost limitless variety of film, adhesive, topcoat and liner combinations for customized applications.

McDonough's industry involvement also includes participation in numerous Labelexpo shows, conferences and seminars, in the TLMI (for which he chairs a committee) and in other organizations.

On being notified of the award, McDonough said: ‘I am thrilled and humbled to learn that I have been selected by the judging panel of the Label Industry Global Awards as the recipient of the R Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award 2008. I am delighted to confirm my acceptance of this great honor.’

Chairman of the judging panel, Mike Fairley, commented: ‘Choosing the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award was a very difficult choice this year, particularly because the judges were evaluating the profiles of nominees against a range of criteria. However, although all were worthy candidates, it was felt that Neil McDonough best exemplified the innovative, industry focused and global approach that has characterized the growth of pressure-sensitive labels over many years. I would certainly like to congratulate him on this achievement.’

Winners of the other Label Industry Global Awards 2008 will be announced at the Gala Dinner and Awards Evening at the Donald E. Stephen's Convention Center on September 9 – the opening day of Labelexpo Americas. The final shortlist for each award is as follows:

Continuous Innovation Award

3M Corporation
ExxonMobil Chemical
CCL

New Innovation Award

EFI Jetrion
PunchGraphix/ Xeikon

Sustainability/Environmental Responsibility Award

Overnight Label
Metro Label Group

Judges for this year's awards, under the chairmanship of Mike Fairley, were Jan Frederik Vink, president of FINAT; John Hickey, TLMI chairman; Andy Thomas, group managing editor, Labels & Labeling; Tony White, editor Narrowebtech and John Penhallow, European correspondent of Label & Narrow Web.