Sheree Eberly, manager - offset R&D for INX International Ink Company, said she was surprised and honored to receive NAPIM’s prestigious 2019 Technical Achievement Award.

“It truly was an unexpected honor, and I’m extremely grateful for all the support. My words cannot express my gratitude to all my colleagues at INX throughout my career, and to NAPIM for the recognition,” said Eberly.

Her colleagues say the honor is extremely deserved, adding that Eberly works behind the scenes to develop leading-edge sheetfed products. John Hrdlick, INX’s president and CEO, said he is very excited and proud to see that Eberly won the award.

“She has always preferred to work behind the scenes and truly deserves this honor. Sheree’s dedicated work over the years has led to many of our innovations in offset,” Hrdlick added.

Eberly began her career in 1982 at Acme Printing Inks in Chicago, moving into the role of lab technician by July 1983 and corporate technical services in 1984.

“I first started with Acme in the office as my entry into the company,” Eberly recalled. “I was quickly moved into an R&D lab role by Rob Dyer, who was president of Acme at the time. I was fortunate to have family members work in the industry, and they turned me on to the initial opportunity.”

As INX International Ink’s formation progressed, Eberly moving into an R&D role with the newly formed US R&D group. In 1999 she was promoted to R&D offset manager, taking on additional responsibilities of overseeing the UV/EB technical development team during its transformational period.

Eberly is credited with a number of important innovations, including the development of one of first true drier free quick setting sheetfed ink for the market; the development of a true ultra-low migration MOSH/MOAH free sheetfed ink for food packaging; and the development of alternate manufacturing techniques for grinding offset pigment, fundamentally changing the process at INX. She has co-authored papers for TAGA, and has participated in several NPIRI conferences, often in the background as a co-author of several publications and articles as person who provided technical support and data.

Eberly noted several key mentors over the years, beginning with Uji Nakamura.

“Uji Nakamura was the person who first trained and taught me the importance of gathering all data and analyzing it,” Eberly said. “I worked with Bill Tasker for 17 years, who once again focused on the importance of being data driven. I was very fortunate to work with Dr. Kotaro Morita for several years, and also Yuichi Kataura, learning about Sakata’s development techniques. Joe Cichon, Rick Westrom ,and Mark Hill trusted me to direct the sheetfed development for INX. When Jon Graunke started, I actually was one of the people to train him. It’s been nice to see him grow to where he is at, and he provides me with advice and guidance with product development and support issues. Todd Dragoo also has given me a lot of technical support. He has acted as a liaison between offset R&D and the customers, helping me prioritize work and manage customer expectations. There have been so many influences, it’s hard to leave people out.”

Dragoo, INX’s OSF technical director, said that Eberly is a tremendous leader.

“Sheree has been a steady presence of knowledge through the years at INX R&D,” Dragoo added. “Her continued efforts to develop products that meet and exceed not just current but future market demands has not gone unnoticed by her peers.

“Working through the many changes that have impacted our industry within the last several years, some of the challenges she has addressed include substrates in use today, the speed of new offset printing equipment being used, changes in regulatory requirements, and continuous Prop 65 changes, just to list a few,” Dragoo added. “She has managed through these challenges and provide our customer base with class leading performance products for offset applications. Sheree has worked very hard at developing new products and improving upon INX’s existing product portfolio. She is called upon by many of her peers in other divisions to assist with challenges. Quite simply, she is responsible for INX products developed for the offset market.”

Graunke, INX’s VP of UV/EB technology, also noted Eberly’s efforts to remain in the background.

“It’s important to consider that Ms. Eberly throughout her career has preferred to work in the background, aiding those within INX by being the technical research arm for R&D management,” added Graunke. “It’s telling that she worked daily with no less than five past award winners, who all held and hold senior management positions at INX, including Dr. Morita, president and CEO of Sakata INX. Ms. Eberly continues to excel for INX, and her colleagues consider her to be the best offset ink formulators in the industry. It is rare to have such a talent and she exemplifies the meaning of the Technical Achievement Award.”

Eberly noted that consolidation has had a major impact on the ink industry.

“There has been a lot of consolidation, as everyone looks to become more efficient,” she continued. “At one time INX had over 50 branches, all of which did at least some manufacturing. The regulatory landscape and the fierce price competition mean products are no longer developed to be the ‘best’ - they now must be the ‘best’ and be competitive to market needs. When I started, development, technical service, and customer responses would take weeks, months or even years. Now everything is almost instant, as communication has become so fast.”

Outside of your work, Eberly has many hobbies. “Gardening, bowling, spending time with my family, and I especially enjoy watching my nephews who are into hockey,” she noted.