Paul Lancelle, Baron of “Booyah,” Packaging & Packers Enthusiast, Welcomed into FTA Hall of Fame

Paul Lancelle FTA Hall of FameForty years a “print junkie,” his appreciation for, and insistence on, well executed work never subsides. He encourages all who will listen to aspire to “reach new heights,” then demands they forge a lifelong commitment to “an astringent process control plan.” He sets the example and morphs into coach and mentor.

Over the years, this flexographer’s roles have been highly diverse, ranging from prepress manager to troubleshooter, consultant to technical specialist, business development manager to chair, organizer to fundraiser, community activist to “cheesehead,” globetrekker to team owner, and village trustee to visiting professor.

Like so many print jobs he has handled, he too transitioned from offset to flexo, linked his professional career with Flexographic Technical Association’s ideals and vision, became increasingly more active, helped to set FTA’s strategic direction and hasn’t looked back since the very early 1990s.

Paul Lancelle FTA Hall of Fame FTA 50th Anniversary
Paul celebrates FTA’s 50th Anniversary with David Neiman and FTA Board Chair and President Mark Cisternino.

To him, “BOOYAH!” is more than just a cheer, chanted to recognize victory and accomplishment; it’s a passion—a chicken and vegetable stew, traditionally cooked over an open fire, that is the central point of a world championship cookoff—tied to the release of his beloved Packers’ schedule and timed to coincide with the team’s bye week or a Monday night game. All proceeds go to benefit the local Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

For the 53rd inductee into the FTA Hall of Fame, one of the founding fathers of the Booyah World Championship, it’s been a passion for going on 18 years. His unwavering support for special needs families already stretches back decades and will span a lifetime.

Paul Lancelle, technical specialist in All Printing Resources’ Technical Solutions Group, current Excellence in Flexography Awards chairman, father of four—including two special needs children—and one of several thousand minority shareholders in the Green Bay Packers, is that individual—the newest member of FTA’s most prestigious society.

Paul Lancelle’s Career SnapshotPaul Lancelle FTA Hall of Fame Excellence in Flexography Awards

Paul Lancelle’s printing career began back in 1976, when he was fresh out of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Initial management duties came at Citizen Printing, where he served as prepress manager from 1990 to 1991. Paul held the same title at Brown County Publishing Co. for the next year and one half. He found flexo when he moved on to Green Bay Engraving and became vice president, technical development. In 2008, he joined Kodak as senior business development manager, packaging and became part of APR’s “Team Flexo” in May 2013.

Training is in his blood. With a knowledge base that extends through prepress, plate making, print and postpress applications

that crosses into all market segments, his expertise and willingness to share and instruct on proper practice and technique has brought Paul to some 15 countries and five continents.

Among the bits of wisdom he has shared, both in person and in writing in the pages of FLEXO Magazine are the following: “Flexo will continue to gain marketshare over competitive print processes, in large part because much more emphasis is being placed on the functionality and value that can be obtained through flexographic technical applications.” That point, made in 2002, was similar to one put out just one year later: “Color management application and technology continue to evolve, leading to improved consistency and repeatability.”

Long a proponent of optimizing the flexo color gamut, in 2014, Lancelle told readers, “The age old mantra of benchmarking and characterization from a given set of print conditions, with optimization as an ongoing goal, remains as the basis in laying the foundation for any successful process control program.”