20 Under 40 - 1998 Profile: Elizabeth A. Sholar

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 1998

 Elizabeth A. Sholar doesn't exactly oversee Thomson Newspapers' corporate publishing-systems staff. As Paul Seveska, president and chief executive officer of Thomson's strategic-market group in Winnebago, Wis., observes, "Beth is our corporate publishing-systems staff."
Since joining Thomson in 1996, Sholar has complemented the Stamford, Conn., group's reorganization of papers into geographic clusters by replacing production systems at a breakneck pace.
"We looked at every corner of the business...and [realized] the company had not spent the capital on publishing systems to do the kind of things SMGs wanted to do," she says. Writing capital plans, managing projects, dealing with vendors, helping publishers identify needs and solutions—Sholar says she does "everything from the little stuff to the big stuff." Seveska calls her activities nothing short of "superhuman." Sholar, he adds, "has had more of a positive impact on our company than anyone else at her level."
While Thomson strives for operational efficiencies by merging printing, production and classified operations, Sholar avoids cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches, noting, "You have to stay flexible and think about each business unit."
With widespread capital improvements in place at Thomson, the daughter of two commercial printers points with pride at the change in the company's people as well as its products.
"IT directors at every one of our locations had the opportunity to become hands-on with new technology and their own papers," she says. "Anyone can put technology in. But it never works unless people make it work."

Education: 1985, B.A., graphic design, University of Illinois, Champaign; 1996, M.S., information systems, Allentown College of Saint Francis de Sales, Center Valley, Pa.
Career: 1985-87, production systems-operations supervisor, Chicago Tribune; 1987-96, pre-press systems coordinator, publishing-systems manager and pre-press manager, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.; 1996-present, director of publishing systems, Thomson Newspapers, Stamford, Conn.
Personal: Age, 38. Born, Middletown, Ohio. Single.
Diversions: Downhill skiing, golf.
Connections: 208 Harbor Drive, 3rd Floor, Stamford, Conn. 06902. E-mail, beth.sholar@thomnews.com; phone, (203) 425-1180; fax, (203) 425-1197l; fax, (203) 425-1197.