It’s great to speak with you this afternoon, Greg. To start, can you tell us when and how you joined Walsworth?

It’s been a wonderful journey getting to Walsworth. I started in July 2019 and wish I could have gotten here sooner. Walsworth is head and shoulders above any print organization I’ve been associated with.

I began my career in the printing industry in the late 1990s, where I excelled as a sales representative. My last position as a sales rep was with Worldmark (now CCL), where I built a $24 million book of business.

I transitioned into a leadership role at RR Donnelly, managing a sizable sales team in the Rocky Mountain region for about 12 years. During that period, I honed my skills in team development, revenue growth and client-focused solutions, essentially building the foundation that brought me to Walsworth.

What was it specifically that led you to Walsworth?

What changed for me (at RR Donnelly) was when the CEO decided to break the company up, which I didn’t see as a very smart move. What concerned me most was watching the company lay off 6-8% of the worldwide workforce to make this breakup happen and investors happy.

When I saw one of my employees, who was a 35-year veteran CSR, get walked out the door and told thank you but no thanks, I just couldn’t go along with this. This was happening across the whole company. You can imagine how much turmoil this caused inside the organization.

I left RR Donnelly soon afterwards and went to a local printer in Utah, Hudson Printing, as their vice president of sales. They were a privately-held company who wanted to grow their sales organization, and we did. I ended up hiring about 20 people. They invested several million dollars in the company and things seemed to be going phenomenal. It was an exciting time.

And then one day our CEO called me into his office and said, “I’m letting go of our executive team, except for you. I want you to stay, but you need to let go of everybody you just hired over the last year and a half.”

The company became over-leveraged, which unfortunately happens in manufacturing. And all of a sudden, what I built had to be torn down. That was really difficult. Telling sales reps who were only with the company a year they had to go find new work. I actually spent about three months trying to help them find new positions elsewhere.

So now I’m in a situation where I’m wondering what I was going to do. I knew (former Walsworth EVP of Commercial Sales) Dave Grisa and casually reached out to him over LinkedIn.

Things came together, and now I’ve been here six years as a Regional Sales Manager in our Commercial Division.

Walk us through a typical day or week.

A typical day for me is a blend of leadership, coaching and strategic support. As the manager of a 14-person sales team – ranging from senior, experienced reps to new hires – I begin each day prioritizing communication and alignment. This includes scheduled 1:1 coaching sessions where we review active opportunities, strategize on new business and address any challenges or concerns reps are facing.

Throughout the day, I have impromptu calls or messages from my team to help troubleshoot any issues, guide deal strategy or provide real-time support on pending opportunities. I’m also actively engaged in lead generation and business development support, helping my team uncover new opportunities in our core markets.

What do you enjoy most about the print business?

In print, we’re not selling an off-the-shelf product. We’re helping customers bring their ideas to life, piece by piece. That level of customization, complexity and craftsmanship makes each opportunity unique. It pushes us to think strategically, solve problems quickly and collaborate deeply across departments. That mix of creativity, strategy and constant learning is what makes this industry so exciting and why I’m still energized every day to help our team succeed.

Do you want to talk about the developmental program that came about under your leadership?

When you looked at our commercial sales organization, you could see that over a 10-year period we were going to be faced with many potential retirements.

Sitting down with Grisa and others, we set up a training program to go out and find the right people for what are essentially sales training roles.

I’ve done this enough to know what to look for. It doesn’t matter to me whether they went to college or not. What matters to me is, what they’ve done with themselves up to this point in their life? If they went to college, I look for those who played a sport or were involved in activities, who likely had to support themselves. People who had to manage their time throughout a given day. In sales, time management is everything.

Really it comes down to, do they have discipline? Because discipline truly carries you through to success. If you look at our sales organization and our most successful reps, there are some key attribute differences and discipline is one of them.

We all wake up some days and feel like, “I don’t want to do this today.” But discipline carries you through.

You mention attributes like being disciplined and being a good time manager, but does it also take a specific type of personality to be a good salesperson?

Honestly? No. There’s no one-size-fits-all personality. On my team, I’ve got everything from bold extroverts to quiet, thoughtful introverts—and some of the introverts are our most consistent performers.

The key is being able to pick up the phone and connect with another human. When you reach out to someone you’ve never met, interrupt their day, and still manage to spark a conversation—that’s amazing. And when those conversations turn into long-term relationships, it’s incredibly rewarding.

What do you see as keys to continued future success for the company?

I feel the major driver of future success is our ongoing “One Walsworth” initiative. It’s more than just a slogan – it’s a culture of alignment and collaboration across all departments. Whether it’s manufacturing, prepress, customer service or sales, we’re all working toward the same five-year goals. That level of unity and transparency is not only refreshing, but also a real competitive advantage. When we’re all aligned and pulling in the same direction, the possibilities for what we can achieve together are huge.

Where are you originally from?

I was born in Los Angeles. My father was a metallurgical engineer at U.S. Steel, and he was taking promotions every few years, so we moved around. All of my siblings and I, of which I have three plus my twin brother, were born in a different city.

When I was entering elementary school, we moved from California to Utah. Then when I was entering high school, we moved to Iowa. Moving to Iowa from the Rocky Mountains was an eye-opening experience.

That had to be an adjustment.

Yeah, I’ve often told this story, but my life changed on a coin flip. When it was time for my twin brother and I to go to college, we both wanted to go out of state for school. I wanted to go back to California, and my brother wanted to go to Texas.

My dad basically said, “one stays and one goes,” pulled a coin out of his pocket and said call it. I went to Iowa State University, which lets you know who won that coin flip, and my brother went to Texas.

When I finished at Iowa State, I moved back west and found myself in the print business not long after that.

You and your family are there now in Park City, Utah, correct?

Yes, we have lived in Park City Utah for 21 years. My wife Patricia and I will be married 29 years in December, and we have two sons, Jack, who is 26, and Pierce, who is 23.

What do you guys like to do outside of work?

We love to travel. She does a bit more than me since she’s self-employed and has more free time, but we try to get out a few times a year, whether it’s short trips locally or elsewhere.

I do a great deal of hiking with my dogs. I love to ski and am very fortunate to have some of the best skiing in the world right in my backyard.

I also love to cook and have friends come over. I do a lot of cooking for the family. For me, one way to relieve stress in life is being in the kitchen or out back at the BBQ.

What do you like to cook?

My first go-to is Italian. I like to make my own pasta. In fact, I made a batch last night.

I also do a lot of Latin cooking, anything that covers that whole swath from Mexico down to South America. I’m always trying to experience something new. Lastly, who doesn’t like to BBQ? I truly love working with my BBQ smoker.

Do you have a favorite movie or TV show?

Favorite movie would be Lawrence of Arabia.

If you had a personalized coffee mug, what would it say?

Best day ever!

What’s a fun or interesting fact about you most people do not know?

That goes back to when I wanted to go off to college. I wanted to go to the Pasadena School of Fine Arts, and my goal was to be an artist for Disney. I had a propensity toward art, and I was really good at it.

Also, I was trained in classical piano. I took 10 years of classical piano growing up.

Do you ever play anymore?

I have a small little electric piano that I bounce around on once in a while, but I think when I have more time, I’ll get back into it.

Do you have a favorite memory or accomplishment from your career that you’re most proud of?

There are two accomplishments from my time at RR Donnelley that I’m especially proud of, both because of the scale of the results and the strategic collaboration it took to get there.

The first was working with a sales rep who had set a bold goal: grow his book of business from $4 million to $10 million within five years. We sat down together and broke it down, looking closely at where growth could come from within his existing customers and identifying key prospects we needed to go after. We built a roadmap and stayed committed to it. What makes this one so memorable is that we didn’t just hit the goal – we blew past it. Within four years, his revenue topped $15 million. Watching his growth and being part of that journey was incredibly rewarding.

The second was a bit more serendipitous. I happened to drive by a company that caught my attention. Something about it just stuck. I did some research and realized it could be a great fit for us. I immediately thought of one of my reps who I knew would be the perfect match for the opportunity. We met, strategized and began the process of building a relationship with that company. Fast forward five years, and they became a $20 million-plus customer. It was a great reminder that curiosity, instinct and teamwork can turn even a passing thought into a major success story.

Both experiences reinforced for me how powerful it is to combine vision with a clear, actionable plan, and the impact that comes from investing in your team’s success.