The biennial LIA National Graduate of the Year winners were announced at the ProPrint Awards last Friday night, with Jackson Young from Harden Packaging in Victoria taking out the $10,000 LIA Visual Connections Scholarship Prize, and Kathy Doan from Corrective Services Industries in NSW winning the LIA Future Leader Award. 

Jackson and Kathy led a tight field, which also included Robert Neale from Westrock in Sydney, Tommy Mavros from Colemanprint in the NT, Ben Reinke from Ultra Labels and Harrison Pascoe from MCC Labels, both from Queensland, Audrey Lajo from TAFE SA, Angus Adcroft from MCC South Australia, Imran Yunis from MCXC Labels in Victoria, and Olivia Fortune from Footprint and Lucien Maart from Label Makers, both from Western Australia.

Heidelberg Australia, who has sponsored the Awards since their inception in the 1970s, covered the cost of flights and accommodation for all the State finalists to attend the national finals and presented them with trophies on the night. Supplier association, Visual Connections, provided the $10,000 scholarship prize.

“Recognising the achievements of our top graduates is not only a fantastic way to encourage and support their career development, but to demonstrate the standard of training and graduates across all sectors of our industry,” said Mel Ireland, National President of LIA.

“We warmly congratulate Jackson and Kathy on their wins, which came after much hard work over the past year or two – first at State level and then for the National finals – involving preparing extensive submissions and going through a full interview process. The field of candidates this year is as high as it’s ever been, and each finalist should be very proud of their achievements,” she said.

In a pleasing footnote, Kathy also took out the 2025 Geoff Selig Scholarship, sponsored by IVE Group and ProPrint, making her the second LIA National Graduate of the Year to take out both Awards. Jaz Allen, the 2023 winner of both Awards and now Vice-President of LIA in Victoria, was there to congratulate Kathy on her win.

“These are the best and brightest of our industry’s new talent, and it is really important to recognise their efforts and achievements, and to celebrate them in front of their industry peers,” Mel says.

“We are grateful to Heidelberg and Visual Connections for their ongoing support and their substantial investment in supporting the future of our industry graduates, and to the team from Intermedia for allowing us to present at the ProPrint Awards, and collaborating with us so generously to ensure the graduates receive the recognition they deserve.”