Australia now has second largest UGRA UCE group outside Europe

Australia now ranks second only to China as UGRA’s largest regional sector of UGRA Certified Experts (UCE) outside of Europe.

Those to recently pass the 2 day training and assessment programme conducted by Swiss based head of UGRA, Erwin Widmer; were Garry Knespal, GASAA, Gavin Daniels, G R Daniels Technical Services and David D’Astoli, Focus Press. They join Jason Hall, technical specialist and director of CMYKit, who was the first Australian to gain UCE status in mid 2008.

Garry Knespal has been the Executive Officer of the Graphic Arts Services Association of Australia since 1986. Over these years he has served on numerous industry technical and business bodies and has wide grounding in the area of colour management

Gavin Daniels, principal of G.R.Daniels Technical Services, has 20 years industry experience ranging from printing device technical support to Digital Front End development and integration combined with IT hardware, software and networking experience.

David D’Astoli is the Pre Press Manager at Focus Press, with over 25 years experience in the pre-press and print industry. During his 8 years at Focus Press, the company has experienced considerable growth, continually upgrading technology and management systems to ensure the highest quality and environmental standards.

Jason Hall, CMYKit is a specialist colour management integrator. With primary focus on implementation Jason will only be asked to accompany and independent UGRA PSO audit where he has not been involved in implementation.

The UGRA certification requires an independent audit, hence an expert cannot participate in audits on systems that they have helped reach ISO specifications. However, with a team of four UCEs, the Australian print industry now has access to a completely independent UGRA team that can perform PSO audits and grant certification (via UGRA following measurement of printed sheets) to those companies who reach and even exceed PSO standards.