Jerry Hill: Born to Print

Spend just a few minutes with David "Jerry" Hill, the new California State Printer, and you'll feel like you've been friends for years. His cordial demeanor puts newcomers at ease as he quickly launches into stories from his long life in the printing business. And having spent nearly every one of his 66 years in a print shop, Hill has a lot of tales to tell.

Appointed in October to oversee California's 300-employee Office of State Publishing (OSP), in Sacramento, Hill is full of energy and ambitious plans to turn around this 163-year-old operation, which has been losing money in recent years. He intends to migrate from long runs printed on OSP's arsenal of large web presses to shorter runs done on digital equipment, coupled with increased electronic distribution. He's looking into inkjet production presses, as well as apps and e-books.

"We're moving forward with being multi-channel in what we provide," says Hill.

Employees, he adds, seem to be supporting his plans. "I have a lot of staff that have come on board and accepted my vision for the future," he says. "All of my career, all the things that I've been exposed to in the private sector and the public sector have equipped me to get this [operation] going in the right direction."

An Early Start

It certainly has been an impressive career. A life-long Californian, Hill was born in Manhattan Beach where he grew up as a self-described "surfer kid." His dad owned Hill's Printing, so from an early age the young Hill was feeding business cards into a letterpress and returning type to the California Job Case. He recalls gathering used slugs of lead type at age 7.

"I would melt it down and pour it into the pigs that went into the Linotype machine," he recounts.

By the time he turned 12 he was running a Heidelberg windmill press. When his dad sold the company in the early '60s, Hill got a job as a letterpress operator through his local union. When he discovered that a coworker running an offset press was making 50 cents more an hour, Hill enrolled in Los Angeles Technical College to learn offset.

In 1972, he bought a Chief 15 offset duplicator and started his own company, Miracle Press, becoming skilled at printing high-end, short-run materials in a time when long runs were the norm. Running a printing company was a perfect fit for him; he enjoyed meeting customers and learning about their businesses, and he also liked the hands-on aspect.

"I liked the mechanical part of it," he reveals. "I always liked doing things with my hands." There was also the element of "making my dad proud," he acknowledges.

In the late '70s, though, everything changed. His father, now an assistant superintendent in northern California, told him of an opening for a print shop teacher in Ukiah, north of San Francisco. So Hill sold his business, bought some land and built a home—and a new life.

"I really enjoyed being a print shop teacher," he says. He enrolled in San Francisco State College to major in Vocational Education to prepare for this new pursuit. It was disappointing, then, when cuts to state education funding trimmed his position to a part-time one.

From Classroom to Pressroom

Around that time, Hill's wife took a job in Silicon Valley, so they relocated there, and he returned to commercial printing. He was hired by K/P Graphics where, as part of the facilities management group, he served as general manager of the in-house print shop for Saga Corp., a food services company.

"That was one of my first exposures to running an in-plant," Hill says.

When Marriott bought Saga in 1986, Hill moved on, overseeing graphic design and photography at Smith Erickson Advertising, then becoming director of sales for Pizzaz Printing for seven years. All the while he taught graphic arts part time at Mission College.

Through the '90s, Hill worked at some well-known printing companies like Western Publishing, UARCO Business Forms, Mail Well (Cenveo), Anderson Lithograph and Consolidated Graphics. Then, in what he calls a "semi-retirement," he started Hill's Consulting, often teaming up with Deloitte Consulting as a print expert.

"That led me to do a study here at the Office of State Publishing," he says. He also consulted for the Department of Justice, Office of Attorney General, which led to him being hired in 2006 as communications manager. There, he oversaw DOJ's five in-plants, plus a team of designers, writers, photographers and videographers. In his six years there, Hill launched an order entry website, worked to standardize forms and convert documents to fillable PDFs, and transitioned the shops from offset to digital printing.

In-plant Networking Group

In 2011, Hill started the State Agency In-plant Managers' Networking Group, an in-plant organization for state agencies. "I kept running into other managers…and all of us said the same thing: 'We need to get everybody together,' " he explains. "I just took the lead, as I do a lot."

His search for similar in-plant camaraderie led him to attend last month's In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference, in nearby San Mateo. He was very impressed with the group.

"I walked away from that conference with a number of new friends," he remarks—not to mention some validation that what he's doing at OSP is in step with changes other in-plants are implementing.

While at DOJ, Hill worked with attorney general Edmund "Jerry" Brown. After Brown became governor, he appointed Hill State Printer.

Hill says his first order of business has been getting OSP's financial situation in order by focusing on what he calls "the three P's":

1. Projection Enhancement (or what commercial printers might call "profit"). His goal is to increase this by 5 to 10 percent.
2. Production Improvement. He will focus on Lean Manufacturing, waste reduction, new digital equipment, just-in-time inventory, etc.
3. Procurement. By negotiating with suppliers, Hill wants to lower procurement costs by 5 percent.

A forth "P" might be "people," he adds. He wants to improve communication, solicit more feedback and cultivate a culture of positive encouragement among employees. His vision of a more digital, more automated future is catching on with employees, he says, who are excited to know they will have a future with OSP.

"It's going to be a joint success," he maintains.

Outside of the office, Hill is just as busy. He has been active in the YMCA, Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, and has served as Parks and Recreation commissioner for the City of Sunnyvale. Hill has also run some 200 marathons, dozens of 50-mile races and in 1988 he completed the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run.

"I've always been the Energizer Bunny," he laughs.