Jim Hammer Enters Rochester Business Hall of Fame

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—James E. Hammer, president and CEO of Hammer Packaging, was inducted into the 2008 Rochester Business Hall of Fame.

The Rochester Business Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing the contributions and entrepreneurial spirit of the area’s most enterprising leaders. The Hall of Fame is a joint initiative of Junior Achievement of Rochester, NY Area Inc., the Rochester Business Journal and Rochester Museum and Science Center.

The selection committee looks for three attributes: 1) contributions that have affected the individual’s organization, business, industry and community; 2) an excellent reputation and a source of inspiration and encouragement for others; and 3) demonstrated leadership, having made outstanding and enduring contributions to improving the products, processes, efficiencies or human relation of business.

Hammer has taken the company his great grandfather started in 1912 and built it into a global printing success story. He has steered the company from a $1 million, 60-employee regional firm to an $89 million, 400-employee global organization. “We’ve doubled in the last five years and expect to double again in the next five years,” he says.

The Rochester Business Hall of Fame includes 59 distinguished men and women, selected since its inception in 2001, who have made a significant difference in the business world, in the community and beyond. Some of the past inductees include George Eastman, Eastman Kodak Company; John Jacob Bausch & Henry Lomb, Bausch & Lomb and Chester Carlson & Joe Wilson, Xerox Corporation.