David Aynessazian joined the graphic arts field as a temporary move in order to apply to Kraft Foods. Thirty-two years later, Aynessazian, VP technical and marketing for Kustom Group, has made a huge mark in the graphic arts, and is a 2017 Pioneer Award recipient.
   
“Due to all the labs you must take to get a chemistry degree at Northern Illinois University, I couldn’t quite complete all my classes in four years and so I needed to go one more summer to get the last classes done,” Aynessazian said. “As a result I was an August graduate. I mention this because my hope when getting a chemistry degree was to get a job at Kraft Foods. Their headquarters is in Glenview, IL, and this was the town I grew up in. But when I went there to apply after I received my degree, they said that they only hire new graduates in June and I would have to come back the following June to apply.
   
“So I started looking for a job that I could do for eight to nine months until I could re-apply at Kraft,” he recalled. “I saw an ad for a job at Lawter in Northbrook looking for a chemist, and since it was not too far from my home I decided to apply. At the time, I knew nothing about the graphic arts industry but it didn’t matter because I was only going to be there for a short time and then ‘off to Kraft I would go.’”
   
At Lawter, Aynessazian worked with Lud Horn, one of the legends of the industry, and there was no need to ever think about Kraft Foods again.
   
“I am proud to have gotten hired at Lawter and was extremely lucky to have been placed in the same lab as Lud Horn,” Aynessazian said. “ Long story short, my time with Lud hooked me on this business and I never went back to Kraft to apply.”
That collaboration led to new product development, including a new gelled vehicle that could be shipped in tanker trucks.
   
“At Lawter in 1987, I was proud to have been principally involved with the development and manufacture of the first gelled vehicle called LV-4379 to have ever been shipped in a bulk truck,” he recalled. “This product was sent to Sun Chemical’s Frankfort, IN volume heatset ink facility.”
   
Throughout his career at Lawter, Aynessazian held management positions in operations, total quality, environmental and technical development. In 1992, he left Lawter and became ink production manager for Roli Ink, a liquid ink specialist, and joined Kustom Group in 1993, where he has held positions in sales, marketing, product development and overall management.
   
At Kustom, Aynessazian has been active in developing new vehicles. “At Kustom in 1994, I led the team that developed the first commercially available energy curable flushing vehicle and energy curable gelled letback vehicle,” he noted. “In 1998, I led the team that developed the first conventional/UV hybrid ink system. In 2003, I led the team that developed the first Strike Thru system, which has expanded in chemistry type and scope ever since. Strike Thru or ‘Drip Off’ as the Europeans now like to call it, has been a very popular way to achieve a visual contrast with a single pass through an offset press equipped with an anilox coating unit.”
   
Aside from his work, Aynessazian has authored numerous technical articles, and has served as a long time instructor for the printing ink vehicles and formulations section of the NAPIM Introduction to Printing Inks, Summer Course. He has also served on various technical committees for NAPIM, and is a long-standing member of the Chicago Printing Ink Production Club. Most recently, he has served on several discussion panels for digital and energy cure application processes, regarding preprint and post print coatings and their effects.
   
“I have taught at the NPIRI summer course for many years from Lehigh University to Fox Valley Technical College and now to Clemson University this coming summer,” he added. “I get great joy from chatting with former students who I see in my travels visiting customers and trade shows.”
   
Not surprisingly, Horn is one of the many influences that Aynessazian credits with his success. However, his father comes first. “I must start with my father,” he said. “He came to the US from Iran in 1958 to go to college. He didn’t speak a word of English, yet he found a way to graduate with a mechanical engineering degree. He and my mother raised a family of four boys.

“He spent his whole life going to work at 7 a.m. and getting home from work at 7 p.m.,” Aynessazian added. “My father taught me the value of hard work. He helped me get my first job at age 13 stocking shelves at a drug store and I have been working ever since. He always made sure I understood how lucky I was to have been born in the US, to have grown up with English as my first language and to have all the opportunities that an American citizen enjoys.
   
“My next mentor was Lud Horn,” Aynessazian noted. “When I went to work for Lawter in 1985, Lud was already a legend of the graphic arts industry, yet he allow me to sit next to him in the lab every day and pick his brain. He had the patience to deal with a young kid like me and explain all that went into making ink raw materials and how they effected the inks.
   
“In the late 1980s, Lawter’s library of technology in hydrocarbon, rosin, ketone and polyamid resin making along with ink vehicle, wax compound, fluorescent pigment manufacture was unparalleled and Lud Horn made sure that I learned how all of these products were developed, manufactured and used in the marketplace,” he added. “It was Lud Horn who turned my job at Lawter into a career in the graphic arts industry.”
   
Aynessazian said that the other mentor of his in this industry is Mike Gerkin Sr., president and CEO of Kustom Group, which Aynessazian joined in 1993.
   
“Mike gave me the freedom and opportunity to explore the industry, going ink company to ink company and printer to printer asking questions,” he said. “Mike gave me the time, space and financial backing to see what was needed in the market and then the lab space, time and guidance to develop those products that I found were needed by the various people that I met. Mike has always been an understanding person to bounce ideas off of and generous with his time, whether I needed to discuss issues that were related to the job or of a personal nature. Mike’s market knowledge seems to be limitless and I could never find a person in the industry who didn’t have a kind word and tell me how lucky I was to be working for such a man.”
   
“My last key influence is my wife Debbie,” added Aynessazian. “Debbie is the kindest person that I have ever met. It is a cliché that your wife can make you into a better man, but I have dozens of people who have told me the difference in who I was before and who I am now. Spending time around a person who is kind to all she meets is a humbling experience. You can’t help but look yourself in the mirror and ask ‘why did you lose your patience,’ ‘why did you get angry over something so trivial,’ and all the other faults that I could find in myself. All who know me know that I am still a work in progress. But the fact that I am progressing in the right direction as a person is due to my wife Deb.”
   
Gerkin said that Aynessazian has been an important part in the success of the Kustom Group.
   
“He is brash, confident and always thoroughly prepared,” Gerkin noted. “He has spotted trends in our industry years ahead of the curve, allowing us to select alternate revenue streams to continue our growth. He is always teaching somebody in the lab or sales about our product lines or the processes being used in the market.”
   
Outside of work, Aynessazian enjoys golf, cards and time with his family.
   
“I love to play golf,” he said. “There have been times that I have been better at the game that I am now, but I just enjoy being on a golf course. The sights, sounds and smells that you will find on a golf course throughout the round you play are what always bring me back regardless of my score. I also like to play cards. I like spades, hearts, euchre, poker, you name it and I will play it, and if I don’t know the game then I will be happy to try to learn it. But my real focus now is my three granddaughters. I have had no better job title than grandpa. I never get tired of spending time with them and they bring great joy to my life.”
   
Aynessazian said that he was shocked and deeply humbled when his name was announced for the Pioneer Award.
   
“All I could think of is that I am an unbelievably lucky guy,” he added. “Receiving such an award was always a dream but as we often learn in life, dreams don’t always come true. In the years that I have left before I retire, I will do my best to show the NAPIM board that entrusting me with such an honor was a decision that they will not regret.”