Princeton Junction, NJ – June 16, 2014 – The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA), a global trade association for card manufacturers, personalizers, issuers and suppliers is proud to announce the addition of 25 new Advanced Card Education (ACE) certification holders.

The ACE designation is for card manufacturing and personalization and fulfillment professionals who have demonstrated knowledge of technologies and processes in specific card manufacturing and/or personalization/fulfillment areas. Applicants must work for an ICMA member company and have a minimum of two years’ experience working in the card industry to be eligible for this certification.

“ICMA is thrilled to have added this new group of ACE designees along with the group of 43 back in March” says Jeff Barnhart, executive director of ICMA. “As this programs continues to grow it further emphasizes the importance of certification programs for our members to help validate their expertise.

ICMA offers two designations, ACE-M and ACE-P, each developed as a stand-alone certification and does not build upon, nor require the other designation as a precedent certification.

The ACE-M designation evaluates the skills and knowledge of card manufacturing professionals and is comprised of eight key sections: PVC/Plastics, Inks, Adhesives, Printing, Collation, Lamination, Die-cutting and Standards/Testing. The new ACE-M designees are:

• Patrick McGuane, Allsafe Technologies
• Giovanni Razo, CardMX
• James Dick, H.W. Sands Corp.
• Jim Morsch, Bristol ID Technologies

The ACE-P designation evaluates the skills and knowledge of card personalization and fulfillment professionals in eight major categories: Printing and Barcodes, Magnetic Stripe Encoding, Embossing, Laser Engraving, Smart Card Encoding, Financial Transaction Card Data, Fulfillment, Standards/Testing. The new ACE-P designees are:

• Shane Drake, Signature Card
• Dori Skelding, Visa
• Burt Png Yap, Smartstripe Marketing
• Mads Petersen, CIM USA

Additionally, 17 individuals from Illinois-based Company JET achieved the ACE-P designation.

From JET: Matthew D’Addio, John Angstadt, Matt Hull, Kurt Kallio, Matthew Massett, Mike Wojtowicz, Salena Metreger, Stephanie Romano, Myriam Cajero, Paul Keske, Nafees Ansari, Melissa Carlson, Cathy Kostal, Jim Waters, Steve Hayes, Michael Odehnal, and Fred Ciocci.

For more information about ICMA and the ACE-M and ACE-P designations, visit www.icma.com.

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About ICMA
Based in Princeton Junction, NJ, ICMA is a non-profit association of card manufacturers, personalizers, suppliers and related industry participants. With more than 240 members globally, ICMA acts as a resource for industry issues, including the production, technology, application, security and environmental issues of cards. More information is available at www.icma.com.