'Fall-back Plan' Pays Off for Tom Tozier

TWO INTERESTS from early in Tom Tozier’s life have continued into adulthood: a love of music and a dedication to the graphic arts industry. Tozier, director of Imaging Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has carved a niche as a leader in the in-plant printing community while keeping his passion for the guitar alive. Born on a U.S. Army base in Nuremberg, Germany, and raised in California, Tozier got his first taste of the printing industry at age 14, when he went to work at a print shop east of Los Angeles owned by his stepfather. By tackling menial tasks like sweeping and helping out in the bindery, he learned a craft while putting spending money in his pocket.

In high school, he bolstered his knowledge of the industry by taking graphic arts classes. But when it was time to think about the future, he considered delving into the theater arts.

“I wanted to become a musician or an actor,” Tozier recalls. “But printing was always the fall-back plan—and I fell back.”

The first stop out of school for Tozier was an in-plant. He worked in the print shop for defense contractor General Dynamics. He went on to work at a variety of commercial and in-plant shops before scoring his first management job as a prepress manager at the Home Savings of America in-plant.

In 2003, Tozier landed the gig of director of Printing Services at the University of California-Santa Cruz. While there he spearheaded an effort to turn the in-plant's campus copy center into a business center—a one stop shop offering copying, shipping, mailing, supplies and more. He also served as president of the Association of College and University Printers and hosted ACUP’s 2007 conference in San Francisco.

But as the California economy crumbled and the cost of living in the Golden State soared, Tozier knew it was time to make a move. In January 2008, he started at his current position at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

A Worthwhile Move

“The opportunity here at this shop was well worth the move and there is such potential here for growth—plus they have a football team,” he quips. Having family in Colorado also eased the move from the beach to the mountains.

“The joke has been I traded in a surfboard for a snowboard,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t do either but it sounds good.”

Tozier heads up a team of 24 full-time employees plus student workers at the university’s 7,000-square-foot main printing area, and oversees a 1,800-square-foot retail copy center and a 1,000-square-foot facility in the library.

When Tozier first arrived on campus, he took note that the in-plant was only bringing in a small percentage of the potential work available at the university.

“One of the biggest things I wanted to do was to determine why we were not getting the business, and then go out and get it,” Tozier stresses. “The idea is to get the campus to utilize our services more than they had been.”

One tactic Tozier implemented was to promote the environmentally friendly practices of the in-plant. This includes letting the community know about the shop’s use of recycled products and soy-based inks, its reduction of CO2 emissions and its cutback on energy usage.

The university’s retail copy center—The CU Ink Spot—has been painted green to show its focus on the environment. It is home to a pair of new Océ VarioPrint 2110s, which reportedly use 47 percent less energy than competitor’s models. Tozier contends the new machines have helped the in-plant reduce its CO2 emissions by more than three metric tons a year.

“Our culture is changing,” Tozier notes. “The incoming class next fall is going to be kids that saw the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ ” He points out that the next generation of college students learned from Al Gore in the 2006 documentary film the importance of conserving energy and reducing their carbon footprint. This opens a marketing opportunity for the in-plant.

“The students expect it, so let’s make sure they know we do it,” says Tozier, who will speak about green marketing at the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference in June.

Next up for the shop is the installation of a chemistry-free direct-to-plate system, expanding its volume of variable data work and, hopefully, a move to a larger facility in the next few years, the in-plant manager reveals.

Tozier, who is married and has two children, has taken up hiking in the Rocky Mountains as a way to relax since his move to Colorado. He also brought his love of music with him from California. He continues to play acoustic and electric guitar, and record his own songs.

“I used to want to have my picture on the front cover of Rolling Stone,” Tozier concludes. “Now I would settle on having my picture on the front cover of IPG.”