New Era at GGE

June 14, 2005 -- When William Safire wrote his last op-ed column in the New York Times in January 2005, he tapped a column he had written 50 years earlier for a quote from the late adman Bruce Barton: “When you’re through changing, you’re through.”

Richard Osicka, owner since 1988 of General Graphics Exhibits (GGE), would agree--and as majority share holder, he is allowing his minority share holders to purchase his stock in the company.

The team which will be leading GGE is not new. The three principles—John Moyes, Bill Nieser, and Paul Porche-- have been with the company since the ‘90s, when according to Osicka, he was faced with the decision: is GGE content with ‘business as usual,’ continuing as it had been on for the past 35 years, or does it change and move ahead?

“The evolving tradeshow industry gave us the opportunity to move ahead, and it was an exciting time to say ‘let’s see what we can do,’” said Osicka. “We focused on providing a professional, personal and quality service at a fair and reasonable price.”

“In addition,” he continues, “we realized that our brand was deeply connected to the Bay Area, and maintaining our brand identity was more important than expanding into new geography where we couldn’t guarantee our quality or level of service.”

According to John Moyes, who will continue to be responsible for sales and marketing at the company, “By following Richard’s leadership, we survived the financial turmoil that hit our area after the dot-com bubble burst. He embodies trust and integrity. We diversified our customer make-up. We still have a thriving consumer base, but we built our B-to-B business and took on more and more specialty projects.”

Osicka will stay on through the transition period, and according to CEO Paul Porcher, will always play a role at GGE. Beyond that, what does he plan to do? “I want to give back something to the industry and community, doing volunteer work and helping small companies be successful. I want to teach the lessons that I learned at GGE—that trust, integrity and honesty are the building blocks for a successful business.”

GGE (www.gge.com ) is a mid-size, value oriented company employing artisans and craftsmen, as well as designers and project managers. For over 40 years, GGE has served the convention, museum, and creative markets with unprecedented attention to detail and to customers’ needs.