Sam Alvarado
Bindery Expert, Marine Veteran, and Cook-out Connoisseur

 

Sam Alvarado has been in the bindery business since some of our employees were in Elementary School. Before that, though, he was a young man with a great love for his country. When Sam graduated from Dunbar High School in Lubbock, he enlisted immediately in the United States Marines. After graduating Private First Class, he spent a year in the Marines, and served afterward in the Reserve.

 

In 1985, Sam began his career in print. He started at Chaparral Press, where he worked for five years. After that, he moved to Print Tech on the Texas Tech campus, where he organized their bindery operations for two decades. Over that time, Sam committed himself to excelling in his profession and learning the various skills that are necessary in a field with as many moving and evolving parts as print.

 

In 2010, we had the opportunity to add his skills and personality to our team. We jumped at the chance, and soon his many proficiencies were on display—his hard work was evident all over the shop. He can work just about any machine, frequently operating the stitcher, inserter, cutter, and folder. Sam does a lot of everything, always leading by example and always ready to wherever he’s needed to make sure every job is flawless.

 

“Bindery is like an art,” Sam says. He enjoys the process, seeing a job from its beginning and guiding it all the way to shipping. He takes a great deal of pride in his work, and so do we. His expertise keeps things moving in the print shop, and his capability and value is hard to overstate: far from being limited to one job or machine, Sam’s versatility means that he can be involved in a job through the course of its creation and can assist at almost any stage of production.

 

Sam’s work ethic and wide range of abilities are exactly what we look for in our employees, and he contributes to the culture of resourcefulness and attention to detail that makes Slate Group stand out. Sam’s wide range of skills and his willingness to go the extra mile ensures that we can get creative when it comes to our job designs; we are always sure that our innovation will be matched by our production capabilities.

 

Sam’s time in the Marines and the Reserve instilled in him a deep respect for our country’s service men and women, and he has remained a supporter and advocate for our Armed Forces. We are proud of his service, and when he suggested in a company town-hall meeting that we raise a flagpole on our property in honor of the country’s veterans, we agreed that it was a terrific idea.

 

When he joined Slate Group, Sam brought with him the hard work and flexibility that helped him excel during his time in the military; those same qualities ensure that our production is efficient and that the quality of our work is exceptional.

 

Sam’s relationship with Slate extends outside the walls of the production shop; he is known far and wide not only as a skilled worker, but also as a master of the grill. Cooking out is his favorite pastime, and his brisket is revered among friends and coworkers. He is also a lifetime Dallas Cowboys fan—gathering loved ones for a cookout and a game makes for a perfect weekend. Sam calls Slate Group his second family, and we are overjoyed to have earned that distinction—especially if it means we get to enjoy more of his cooking!