A New California State Printer

California Governor Jerry Brown has appointed David “Jerry” Hill as State Printer to oversee the Department of General Services Office of State Publishing (OSP) in Sacramento. He will be sworn in on Monday. Hill, who has a long and distinguished background in the printing industry, has served as communications manager at the California Department of Justice, Office of Attorney General, since 2006, where he has managed both the in-plant printing and audio visual media groups. He has also played an active role in the local in-plant community.

Hill succeeds former State Printer Geoff Brandt, though Kevin Hannah has been serving as Acting State Printer for the past couple of years. With about 135 employees and approximately $65 million in revenue, OSP is one of the largest state government in-plants in the country. It produces printed publications, forms, envelopes, brochures, business cards and more for 150+ state government agencies, departments and commissions. OSP is also responsible for the printing of more than 3,000 legislative bills per session. In addition to printing, its services include graphic design, video/webcasting production and fulfillment.

Hill is the creator of the State Agency In-plant Managers’ Networking Group, an in-plant organization that has been meeting regularly at different in-plants in the Sacramento area. The group, which IPG wrote about in June, boasts 35 active members from 25 government agencies all around the state capital. He plans to keep the group going.

Hill began his career more than 40 years ago alongside his father in his family’s printing business. After running that business in the late '60s and early '70s, he went into business for himself, specializing in short-run color printing and publications.

In the late '70s, Hill began teaching high school and community college students in graphic communications, and continued doing so until the late '90s. He later went on to hold positions as sales executive, director of sales, national account sales manager, general manager and chief operations officer for such companies as K/P Graphics, Pizzaz Printing and Publishing, Smith Erickson Advertising, Western Publishing, UARCO Business Forms, Mail Well, Anderson Lithograph and Consolidated Graphics. In the 2000s, Hill formed Hill’s Consulting, providing print industry consultation services on a number of regional and national projects.