After college, Jeff Newton took his first job as an ink technician for BASF. Now, 40 years later, Newton is the laboratory manager – heatset and sheetfed inks and varnishes for Sun Chemical, and he has deservedly received NAPIM’s 2025 Printing Ink Pioneer Award for four decades of distinguished service in the ink industry.

“I started at BASF in Clifton, NJ after graduating Gettysburg College in 1986, as an ink technician and technical service representative,” Newton says. “This job was a great setup, because after formulating the ink, you could be on the press side watching runs and able to adjust the ink to improve performance if there were failures. 

“In 1992, I moved with BASF to Holland, MI, where I worked in the varnish lab making varnishes for all aspects of the print business (flushing vehicles, letdown varnishes, gel varnishes, OPVs (overprint varnishes),” he adds. “When BASF was exiting the U.S. market a few years later in 1996, I moved to Westvaco as their application manager for resins. Before I started this job, I insisted on formulating resins so I could understand the chemistry and process, strengthening my position in application management.”

In 1999, Newton moved to Sun Chemical. 

“In 1999, I started as the varnish manager at Sun Chemical for our publication market,” Newton says. “In 2005, I added responsibilities for the technical side of our WOHS inks, and most recently, I have been supporting our UV paste group as well.”

Newton says that developing products that can run successfully at a customer’s request or reducing cost to improve margins while maintaining quality for the customer are among his favorite highlights.

“Triton Technology is a great example of this from 20 years ago,” he notes. “But technology and success are not the most rewarding parts of the job; it is the relationships you make over the years, not only with co-workers, but also with suppliers and even competitive ink makers that are truly rewarding. Meeting regularly with suppliers to find or develop new raw materials has helped me in turn develop new varnishes and inks, and I’ve held many of these relationships for over 30 years.”

Newton points to a number of key influences over the years, including Steve Okunevich at BASF, Rick Houser at Westvaco, and Jeff Jones at Sun Chemical. “As I have been working more with UV paste ink recently, I have learned a lot from Kacy Schultz and Dave Biro,” he adds.

Newton has seen the publication printing change dramatically over the years.

“The biggest change for me, working with conventional paste ink most of my career, is the rapid decline of magazines and newspapers,” Newton observes. “We were selling over 200,000 million pounds of ink at our highest point between two manufacturing sites, but that has since decreased by over 90 percent. When the iPhone came along, it changed how people prefer their news and media, which has shifted our market reliance.” 

Outside of Sun Chemical, camping is among Newton’s favorite hobbies.

“My family has always been big campers, and even though my two daughters have now left the nest, my wife and I continue to camp quite a bit,” he says. “I also enjoy gardening; nothing like picking your own vegetables for a meal. My favorite sport to watch is college basketball.”

Newton is appreciative of receiving the Pioneer Award, although he feels it is more of a team honor. 

“It is a little humbling to receive because I am not sure this is really an individual award,” Newton says. “All my successes have been from working with a team of people, and the team is what really makes it worth coming to work. There are a lot of great names on the list of previous Pioneer Award winners. I am proud to be among them.”