Steve Dunwell has been appointed managing director of manroland Australasia, effective from next month. Best known for the Media Tech newspaper and prepress systems distribution business he built with Michael Joel before the merger of one of its major agencies into CreoScitex - now part of Kodak - he has spent the last six years as Sydney-based NSW manager of the Currie Group. The fully-owned manroland Australasia sales, marketing, and services subsidiary covering the whole of the Pacific region has been in operation since the beginning of June, replacing the longstanding agency agreement with MAN Ferrostaal and embracing the manroland Web Service Australia (MRWSA) operation formed last April. New offices in Sydney and Melbourne have been opened, and Dunwell says the already strong team is being bolstered for the long term future, improving prospects for manroland and its customers: “It will further strengthen the already service-focused manroland business established by Graham Wickham and his team over the last 18 months. “We want to replicate manroland's worldwide success with huge efforts in sales and marketing,” he says. “The product range is now offered directly from the source and includes sheetfed and web presses as well as a wide range of services with printservices, printcom, printnet, and printadvice. “One of the main goals at manroland is to optimise the benefits of our presses and enable future opportunities for value-added processes.” He says strengthening its focus on the market, customers, and service, will enable manroland Australasia to respond even faster and more efficiently, in order to meet the challenges faced by the industry in a dynamic and sustainable manner. Well known in newspaper circles, Dunwell has a reputation as a hands-on manager with a wealth of experience in the printing industry, including launching and strong growth of the Media Tech business.