E&P Production All-Stars 2009: From First Jobs to Management Careers

By: Jim Rosenberg Sometime between being old enough to take their first drive and buy their first beer, this year's winning trio walked into newspapers and never left. They were very young men who went looking for work and found careers.

Thanks to one man's friend and another's future wife, two took entry-level mailroom jobs as the country was just climbing out of a recession in 1982. The third was hired part-time for plateroom training as the country hit another rough spot five years later.

All in their mid-40s today, this year's E&P Production All-Stars manage multi-title operations within three large groups.

And while their industry's and country's economic circumstances are decidedly worse than their early employment experiences, each has effected efficiencies in operations that are keeping their plants in production while those on the revenue side figure out the future of their business.

As in previous years, colleagues selected candidates, and top executives signed and submitted nomination forms. Those pictured on our cover and honored in the following pages received the highest combined scores in several criteria by the five judges listed to the right. E&P donates $500 in the name of each winner to the International Newspaper Group's scholarship fund for college students.