Heather Willovit

My career in printing and production spans nearly three decades, beginning in my late 20s as a traditional C41 darkroom printer at Dugal, one of New York City's largest photo labs. I worked with prestigious clients including Vogue and Mademoiselle, progressing from mural printing to becoming an Iris printer when inkjet technology was just emerging. I moved into digital retouching and worked with Lambda C Prints, then became a senior director at Rutenberg Displays, managing teams and handling printing and packaging for major retail and food chains. When Rutenberg closed, I joined Ricoh almost 19 years ago as they were launching their production printing business. They needed people who understood true print production, so I became a Production Printing Solutions Engineer, teaching customers how to use equipment and troubleshoot. After about 7 years supporting New York City, I transferred to London where I ran Ricoh's Printing Innovation Center, then moved to Germany to produce Drupa, one of the industry's largest trade shows that runs for two weeks. Back in the U.S., I spent 7 years as a Solution Development Manager for New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, helping customers with software, MIS, web-to-print, composition, and digital transformation. I became certified in G7 color management, earned my Six Sigma Greenbelt to better serve hospital, aviation, and packaging customers, and helped develop Ricoh's assessment app. For the past two years, I've been in the business consulting practice, and I also run a disaster recovery program for Ricoh to help protect family-owned businesses and their legacies.