ABOUT US

Bruce has been at the intersection of photography and electronic output since the onset of the digital age. After working his way through the University of Missouri as a Brooks Institute-trained wedding and portrait photographer, he landed in Seattle, running professional photo labs and supporting many of the major Northwest brands of the 80’s. 

While at Pacific Color, Inc., he was introduced to the cutting edge of nascent electronic imaging systems, the Dicomed D48, which was originally developed to send photos from the Voyager mission to Jupiter back to Earth. This system allowed for the first move into higher-resolution presentation transparencies created from PowerPoint and Aldus Persuasion and were key in the presentations made by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer when they were looking to take Microsoft public.

Bruce’s experience with Gates led to being chosen to build out the initial image library at Interactive Home Systems/Continuum Productions, which became Corbis. His task was to create a million-image library in a short period, which was successfully done by creating partnerships in the traditional pre-press world. This was the beginning of the open partnership concept that Bruce has developed and perfected over the years and has become the backbone of successful client/printer relationships throughout the industry.

After effectively integrating many image libraries into the Corbis system, including the Ansel Adams Trust and the Bettmann Archive, as well as playing a major M&A role in incorporating Westlight, Digital Stock, and Sygma, Bruce began supporting new and existing companies in digitizing and monetizing their content. During this time, he grew the initial Apple iPhoto book business and supported many other companies that were moving into the direct-to-consumer print model, including Costco and Getty Images, before joining the founding team at Blurb.com.

The culmination of his prior experience, Blurb became the global leader in online self-publishing and marketing (Inc 500 #1 fastest growing media company in 2010, Goldman Sachs "Top 100 Up and Coming Private Companies"​ in 2012). He managed global print product development and production strategy, print technology, order fulfillment, partner relationships, customer support, large order services, and logistics, and was responsible for the creation of what is widely regarded as the most comprehensive and agile digital and offset print network in the self-publishing industry with multiple locations in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. This network allowed for scaling of global business infrastructure to deliver profitability within 24 months of first $ of revenue, and an organization to accommodate revenue CAGR of 135% from 2006 to 2011. He built a full customer-facing Operations group scaleable to +$100M annual revenue with margin increases year-over-year from 2006 through 2019.

During his years at Blurb, the Operations and Finance Group was viewed as the gem of the organization, creating processes that were widely duplicated in the print-on-demand industry, from both the client and production angles. The “Blurb Printer Summits”, part of the open partner concept he developed in the 90’s, are today considered the industry standard for successful partner—rather than vendor—relationships.

Bruce has built trusted relationships throughout the industry, with a global reach. PrintReady Network expands on the successes of the past, adding world-class production partners along with executive and senior consultants from “Concept to Creation to Delivery”.