 Peter Kiddell's Profile
Peter is an engineer by training a printer by choice and a teacher by predilection. He joined the industry in the 1970's and has progressed through various stages starting first in equipment sales, then as a Director of a Reprographic company after which he set up his own printing company with production facilities in Yorkshire and South Wales. Starting first with pad printing and then screen printing he gained a vast knowledge of operating and managing these processes in a very challenging market place with many household names and multinationals as clients. As a sub-contract printer there could be no compromise on quality and very tight deadlines had to be met. Peter's engineering approach came into play with the adoption of close process control to maintain consistency, keep machine downtime to a minimum and have zero defects.
This approach to printing was carried over to PDS Consulting; the company started by Peter and his business partner Carol Swift who had been Technical and Production Director in his printing company. The aim of PDS Consulting is to develop best practice in all aspects of production in printing companies or companies that use printing as part of their production process. Over the 17 years of trading PDS Consulting has become the foremost consultancy in this area with clients, many of who are household names, throughout the world. Working with a whole range of printing processes, now increasingly digital printing.
Peter with his company PDS Consulting has broken new ground with the development of a highly innovative internet based e-learning package for Screen Printing. This unique program is a distillation of his expertise and provides essential content for novices and experienced practitioners of the process. The course is available in: English, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese. Thai and Dutch are currently being translated. Also in build are courses on Digital Printing, Pad Printing and Basic Stencil Production.
As screen print editor of Screen Process and Digital Imaging Magazine (SPDI) Peter reaches out to a wide audience in the UK . His regular column in FESPA WORLD Magazine is translated into several European languages to achieve a Europe wide readership. He also contributes to ScreenPrinting Magazine in the USA . He is a regular presenter on a range of print related topics at seminars throughout the UK , Europe, Asia and the USA.
As President of Prism and a board member for several years he is charged with addressing the needs of a rapidly changing market by developing a new range of services for the expanding market.
Ever optimistic Peter is constantly looking for new challenges and at motivating others to get the best from their strengths with one key belief. “Enjoy life and just do it!”
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 Carol Swift's Profile
Carol started her working career by completing a Mechanical and Production Engineering Apprenticeship at the EITB in Sheffield, the only female apprentice amongst some 200 apprentices. She was in heaven.
Carol went on to work as a technician at one of the UKs top pad printing machinery suppliers. She quickly progressed to a technical support engineer going out to customers carrying out demonstrations and machine installations.
After a couple of years she was approached by Peter who asked her if she fancied running his newly acquired sub-contract pad printing facility. Having absolutely no idea what was involved she said “why not?” and that was the start of a 28 year working partnership.
Carol became Technical Director of Product Decoration Services and was responsible for managing two printing facilities, one in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and the second in South Wales.
In 1990 Peter and Carol set up PDS Consulting with a view to being able to pass on their technical and practical knowledge only to realise there was a bit more to it than just saying give that a tweak. They recognised that need formal qualifications and to this end completed a range of assessment and training qualifications. Carol is a City Guilds qualified Internal Assessor (D32) and Verifier (D33) and has also attained the TDLB Level 4NVQ.
Carol is also involved in Prism although more remotely than Peter.
She has been heavily involved in the development of the World of Print Internet based screen printing course, particularly in organisation of the additional 7 European languages.
Carol is a very practical individual and loves the cut and thrust of the production environment, planning, organising, problem solving, etc. Pad printing is her first love and she is never happier than when she teaching people about the process
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