Douglas Grant Is Selected as PIASC’S Executive of the Year

LOS ANGELES—February 6, 2014—The Printing Industries Association of Southern California (PIASC) Public Relations committee unanimously selects Douglas Grant, president of Westamerica Graphics in Foothill Ranch, CA, as PIASC Executive of the Year and the recipient of the highly-regarded Ben Franklin Award.

Doug Grant landed his first job in the printing industry when he was in high school—sweeping floors, cleaning toilets and running an envelope press at his father’s medical forms business. From those humble beginnings Grant has certainly come a long way! Now the president of Westamerica Graphics, he presides over a company that has built its reputation as one of the premier printing and graphic communication companies in Southern California. Westamerica Graphics provides high-quality lithographic and digital printing, logistics and creative cross-media marketing solutions for growth-minded companies.

Born in Minnesota and raised in Iowa, Grant headed out west in 1976 to attend Cal Poly Pomona, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. While there he worked as an account representative at Professional Office Services. As soon as he graduated in 1980 Doug joined the new family business: Westamerica Graphics, which his father had founded after getting bored with retirement. He served as the firm’s vice president of sales for three years, and then took over as president in 1983.

Under Doug’s leadership, Westamerica has always taken a “can do” attitude towards meeting customer needs, even when this has meant quickly getting up to speed to add something new to their service offerings. For example, back in the mid-1980s Westamerica was doing a lot of work for Taco Bell when it suddenly lost it all to a “forms management vendor.” A few months later, after that vendor proved incapable, Taco Bell came back to Westamerica and asked if it could “do forms management.” Without hesitation Grant said yes—in spite of the fact that he had no idea what this meant! He quickly found out, put a team and database system in place, and provided forms management services to Taco Bell for many years after that.

Known for his vision, passion and dedication to providing stellar service and quality, Grant is heavily involved in the printing industry and community. His leadership positions include:

• Board Member, Printing Industries Association of Southern California, 2001-present
• Chairman, Printing Industries Association of Southern California, 2004-2005
• Founding Director, Graphics for Hope, an industry initiative supporting the City of Hope Cancer Center, 2000-2009
• Event Founder and Director, 50 Mile Ride for Rwanda, an annual mountain bike event supporting World Bicycle Relief and Team Rwanda Cycling, 2006-present

Doug lives in Dove Canyon, where he resided with his beautiful wife of 31 years, Sandy, until he lost her to cancer in May of 2013. Doug’s daughter, Jaclyn, lives with her husband Michael in Oakland, while his son Danny lives in Brooklyn, NY. When he’s not involved with the printing world, Grant enjoys mountain biking and road cycling, serving as a small group leader at his church, and purveying “Doug’s Beans,” Orange County’s best fresh roasted coffee.

The presentation of the Ben Franklin Executive of the Year Award will take place at PIASC’s annual Graphics Night on Thursday, March 27, 2014, at the prestigious California Club in Downtown Los Angeles.

Event sponsors include: Blue Shield of California Life & Health Insurance Co., Carlson Advisors California, Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT), CIGNA, Citizens Business Bank, Health Net, Humana Specialty Benefits, Kaiser Permanente, Landmark Healthcare, PIASC Insurance Services, Preferred Employers Insurance Co., Printing Industries Credit Union, Spicers Paper & Kelly Paper, Taylor Graphics, Unisource, unum, UPS, and Western Dental.

Source: PIASC.