All in the Family

A simple purchase Andrew Carey made when he was 11 years old was his first step on a journey of significant contribution to the diecutting/diemaking industry.

ANDREW CAREY SAID that his father, Kevin Carey, was always involved in the diecutting/diemaking business, so it seemed natural for him to follow in his father's footsteps. And he didn't wait too long to get started, or to move up the ladder of success.

At the age of 16, Carey started his career in the industry working part time in the shipping and receiving department of Lasercomb America. Soon after high school, he went full time as a computer aided design (CAD) programmer and in just two years, was supervising the group. A short time later, he moved into new product development in the company's R&D group.

Lasercomb America was purchased by Atlas Die in 1990 and a year later, Carey left Atlas to join Cimex Corp. (Belchertown, Mass.) as vice president. He was named president in 2000.

Somewhere between these changes and promotions, Carey found the time to be elected to the Board of Directors of the International Association of Diecutting and Diemaking (IADD). Now, in recognition for his contributions to the IADD and to the industry as a whole, he is being honored as packagePRINTING's 2004 IADD Diecutter/Diemaker of the Year, following in his father's footsteps after 18 years.

An unselfish, winning attitude

"Andrew was chosen as this year's recipient purely based on his unselfishness and his contributions to making our industry a better place," said Clint Medlock, president of Stafford Cutting Dies and chair of the awards committee. "He does the things he does for others because of the feelings he gets internally for helping, not the outward recognition."

Carey was not named the IADD Diecutter/Diemaker of the Year award recipient just for his work behind a desk, but also for a winning attitude he has demonstrated throughout his entire life.

"Andrew has always gone that extra mile in both his business and personal life. It's not only what Andrew has done for the IADD, but what he has done for our industry," said Dennis Garrity, president of Bar-Plate Manufacturing. "His service as a director and member of numerous subcommittees has been invaluable."

It almost didn't happen

Andrew Carey was 11 years old, living in England with his parents, when he made an inadvertent purchase that started a chain reaction in his family like no other. While he and his family were vacationing in Scotland, Carey was asked to bring home a specific Sunday paper so his father could look in the help-wanted pages for a job. The local store ran out of the paper his father asked for, so he brought home a different one. That newspaper included an advertisement for a job that eventually led Kevin Carey to Lasercomb GmbH. That was in 1978. "If I had brought the right paper home, he wouldn't have seen the advert and who knows where we'd all be at this point?" said Carey.

Kevin Carey moved his family to Germany for nine months while he prepared for his assignment—to lead the start up of Lasercomb America. While he lived in Germany, Andrew was enrolled in a school in which only German was spoken. Not knowing the language, Carey said he didn't learn much and basically missed a year of schooling.

But, of course, that didn't stop him. When his family was relocated to Massachusetts nine months later, Carey dove into his studies and graduated from high school as the class valedictorian and was voted by his classmates as the most likely to succeed. "When I came over to the U.S., the curriculum at the high school was below what I'd been at in England, so they decided to bump me from seventh to eighth grade. So I basically missed sixth and seventh grades, then graduated at 17 at the top of my class," said Carey.

While in high school, he started working part time in the shipping and receiving department of Lasercomb America, and continued working there in the customer service department after he was awarded a four-year scholarship to the University of Massachusetts. But UMass wasn't in his cards, so he left school and started working full time as a CAD programmer for Lasercomb America in Palmer, Mass. in 1985.

A self-made man

Carey taught himself CAD programming while he was working at Lasercomb America. "I used to go in on the weekends figuring stuff out, and went from tinkering with existing programs to writing my own simple ones," he said.

He admits to not knowing a single known programming language, but he says he uses a CAD-specific macro language to write the applications. CimPACK, one the company's flagship products, is a software package used by diemakers to design and create dies, and is also used by package designers. Since the first CimPACK was sold in May 1991, Carey said more than 3,300 licenses of the CAD software have been sold worldwide.

"When I ask for improvements or changes to the software, I get them. No rebuttal, no excuses, he just does it. You may look at that as what he needs to make his business better, but if you look closer, you will see that is the way he handles his personal life as well," said Medlock.

Cimex Corp. is a company of nine employees that also creates CAD software outside of the packaging industry, under the name CimCAD. According to Carey, CimCAD is used for "strange tasks" such as designing custom carpets, building yacht hulls, custom doll houses, stitching cowboy boots, and also for welding applications such as cell phones and pacemakers.

Commitment to IADD

Carey joined the IADD in 1993, and has actively participated in IADD's annual and midwinter meetings since then. In 2001, he was elected to the Board of Directors and was re-elected in 2004. "I have spent a lot of time with many of the other suppliers, diemakers, and diecutters, and have benefited greatly from being in contact with many of the leaders of the association, and serving on the Board of Directors these past three years," Carey said.

As much as Carey understands the value of being an IADD member to help him enhance his business and career, he knows some of the challenges the IADD faces. "As people have less free time and less available profits in general, any association will have trouble retaining membership," he said.

"The IADD meetings are a great place to meet with such knowledgeable people, so it has been an invaluable experience for me," he said. "Some people don't expect me to have experienced as much as I have. It's not just the years, but the mileage!"

By Megan Wolf

Assistant Editor