Paul Reilly to Receive GCSF’s 2025 Champion of Education Award

The Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) is pleased to announce that the recipient of its 2025 Champion of Education Award is Paul Reilly, partner, New Direction Partners. He will accept the honor at GCSF’s annual scholarship awards ceremony in New York City on June 30, 2025.

Paul Reilly

The GCSF Champion of Education Award honors exceptional individuals in the graphic communications and media field who have contributed their time, resources, and talents to the greater good of the printing industry and the next generation of its workforce. Reilly’s sterling career as an executive, an investment banker, and a financial advisor marks him as one of the industry’s most respected and influential figures.

Originally a CPA, Reilly began his industry career in 1978 with Polychrome. He left that company as President in 1993 and shortly thereafter became a partner in a Jersey City envelope company, Pavey Envelope & Tag. This was the start of an acquisition spree that evolved into Mail-Well and eventually into Cenveo, where Reilly served as President & COO from 1998 to 2001. He then took on the combined role of President & CEO and Chairman of the Board, which he held until he left the company in 2005.

Under Reilly’s leadership, Cenveo completed 60 acquisitions, grew from $17 million to $2 billion in sales, and expanded its footprint to 86 plants with more than 10,000 employees across North America. In 2004, Fortune magazine voted Cenveo second place in the printing and publishing category as one of the Most Admired Companies of the year.

From 2009 to 2022 Reilly served as one of four founding partners of New Direction Partners, an investment banking firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) within the printing and packaging industries. During that period the firm completed over 300 transactions representing over $4 billion in sales value as it helped sellers and buyers to achieve their business and personal goals.

Reilly is widely recognized as an authority in M&As, business valuation, financing, selling, turnarounds and restructuring, and strategic planning. He has written extensively about these subjects for the printing industry’s leading trade media. He is a frequent guest speaker at industry events and is in perennial demand as a consultant.

Active over the years in numerous industry trade associations, Reilly has also served on the management boards of several private companies. His honors include the Industry Influencer Award from Printing Industries of New England (PINE); the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Print & Graphic Communications Association (PGCA); induction into PRINTING United Alliance’s Ben Franklin Honor Society; and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which salutes the accomplishments of immigrants and their descendants.

In late 2022, Reilly transitioned into retirement by stepping back from full-time engagement at New Direction Partners. A native of Queens, New York, he has an undergraduate degree in Finance and an MBA in Computer Methodology from Baruch College. He resides in Florida and Colorado with Patty, his wife of 50 years.

Reilly will accept the Champion of Education Award during GCSF’s 2025 Scholarship Award Ceremony at the Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel on June 30. The event also will feature the presentations of scholarships and grants to students of graphic communications and institutions that promote career development within the discipline.

The Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) is a not-for-profit, all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization that supports study and career development in the graphic communications media industry. For more information, contact info@gcsfny.org. To donate, please go to https://gcsfny.org/donate-a-scholarship/.

Source: GCSF

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of Printing Impressions.