Whiteside moves up Power 100 list
printweek.com, 25 June 2008
We've counted the votes, deliberated, cogitated and digested the results, and finally - after a heated debate - we've drawn up a list of who we feel are the 100 most powerful people in print. There are plenty of newcomers, one or two surprises and a new number one who we hope you will all agree, deservedly tops this year's rankings. For those of you who made the list, congratulations, and for those of you who missed out, better luck next year. PrintWeek would like to thank all of those readers who took the time to vote online for their personal pick, and we hope that you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
11 Robert Whiteside (12) - Adare
Why Sporty Scot Whiteside moves up the table one place after another 12 months of transforming Adare into a marketing company. Following the sale of Adare's On Demand Communications business, which owns Prontaprint and Kall Kwik, early in 2007, another one of the firm's non-core businesses, the beer label printing specialist Darley, was sold to an MBO team. Whiteside then turned his sights to completing the merging of Adare's Shipley site, which was previously known as Lexicon, into Park Mill to create a central multimedia direct mail hub. Shipley closed its doors at the end of 2007, but not before Adare had already set up an office in Russia, on Moscow's Red Square no less, and picked up a major international contract for retailer Tie Rack. Whiteside has taken a breather from the acquisition trail this year, although he always talks up the chances of further growth through M&A.
He says We have a very clear strategy to invest in meeting the marketing and customer communications requirements of our customers.
They say Robert shows vision, tremendous enthusiasm and a desire to continue to evolve the company. He's a truly inspirational leader for Adare.
