Page 30 - Print 21 magazine Jul-Aug 2021

Profile
Print
pioneer
At a time when gender roles and identities play a central role in business, politics and society, Sue Threlfo stands out in the very ‘blokey’ print industry. She is notable not only for being a long-term facilitator of the industry’s digital transformation, but also as a pioneer in leading the change towards a more diverse industry. She tells
Patrick Howard how it came about.
Sue Threlfo is accustomed to dealing with resistance to new ideas. In the 1990s as a sales professional promoting digital printing to a fairly
recalcitrant printing industry, she became used to being met with closed doors and a refusal to consider alternatives. The fact that she was a woman maybe didn’t help in many cases. However, it rarely occurred to her there was anything other than traditional printers’ reluctance to change. It’s only in retrospect she recognises the likely structural gender discrimination. At the time, her method of dealing with it came down to “wearing blinkers, so I guess I didn’t see it”.
Projecting a refreshing pragmatism, the closest she comes to evangelism is in her belief that digital technology is the future of printing. Arriving in the industry
as a digital analyst from Unisys
at a time when few had any real computer understanding, Threlfo was recruited initially for her technical knowledge. Joining Rank Xerox, she was at the forefront of the digital revolution, a position she has retained over the past three decades, well placed and equipped as an effective agent for change.
Now as general manager production and industrial print with Konica Minolta, Threlfo is still breaking barriers and promoting technology
to a whole new generation of printers who are not only convinced of its benefits but also more accustomed to listening to a woman.
Despite her technical background, Threlfo reckons she came into her own with a shift into sales in the 1990s. Moving from backroom
30 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2021
Above
Sue Threlfo: “We would
all rather buy from someone you like doing business with, someone you trust.”
Right
Wide range of digital print solutions: Konica Minolta
support to the front line was the beginning of her long association, and in many cases friendship, with leading lights of the industry.
“I always felt that my skills were more on the customer side. I had a technical role, but, you know, it was really about customer experience, liaising with them on their issues. Back then I was calling on people like Geoff Selig at Link Printing and Richard Celarc of Ligare. I really got to know all the commercial printers at that stage, particularly in Sydney.
Grew relationships
“And I loved it, absolutely loved
it. I had done a little bit of selling
of consumables with Unisys at
one stage, but pretty minor. So
I really did enjoy it and came to
love the printing industry. I just like the customer interaction. I became immersed in the industry, grew my expertise and developed relationships. I’ve sort of been there ever since really.”
In the 1990s the industry was
still living in the phoney digital
war. Although the clouds of digital printing loomed on the horizon, printers mostly continued as though things would remain as they were.
It was still a hierarchical industry clinging to the remnants of craft tradition. And it was entirely male-dominated with significant structural issues.
“Lots of printers had their head in the sand and struggled to come to terms with the fact that this press they were buying, or this piece of equipment, wasn’t going to last ten
or fifteen years. That was a major hurdle. The fact that it wasn’t going to have an equivalent value in ten years time, which is what they were used to.
“The other thing of course, was image quality. Back then, they all looked at the print through a loupe. And it wasn’t about being saleable; it was about the craft. Which, again, was a bit ‘head in the sand’, because if somebody was going to pay for it, and they could get it printed and out the door and the money in the bank, really isn’t that what matters?”