...and recording artist
Jerry McNeely, one of three boys, grew up in Sullivan, Indiana and studied Engineering and Quality Management at IUPUI (Indiana University/Purdue University – Indianapolis). At his first job, someone donated a printing press to the company he worked for.
Given his engineering background, he asked if he could clean it up and get it working. A month later, he applied at every print shop in town and enventually got a job as a pressman in a commercial shop. He worked his way up several small to large shops within various departments, from press to bindery manager to quality manager.
Eventually Jerry opened his own small digital shop. His passion for quality management led him to reviewing metrics and ERP systems. Jerry followed that passion and has been involved in configuring and training ERP systems in Print for the past 17 years.
Jerry began working at Avanti in 2011. As the business workflow specialist for the Avanti Classic platform, his role has evolved to one as a consultant, helping customers get the most ROI from the software and training them on new modules and features.
The most significant change that Jerry has seen in the industry is the impact made by digital print, wide format and fulfillment, as customer demand for these services continues to grow. Those printers taking advantage of these areas are seeing tremendous gains.
In his spare time, Jerry can be found playing the bass guitar; his favourite artist is James Taylor. What most people don’t know about Jerry is that, in his younger years, he was fortunate enough to perform on a friend’s record in a Nashville recording studio. He wrote and performed two songs on that record. The studio was owned by the Oakridge Boys and Jerry met them the day they started the sessions.
Jerry also enjoys woodworking and jokes that “when people ask what I make, I answer – mostly sawdust.”
Jerry takes great pride in his family, which include his 3 children: Spencer 17, Emmalee 29, and Justin 33.
