Sherfield has spent his entire career in the printing industry, after originally taking up a six year apprenticeship to become a compositor on the advice of his father, who was a letterpress printer.

During the 1980s and 1990s he went on to work at several high profile printing businesses of the day, and was sales director at Archway Press, Ashdown Press, and a director at Ventura Litho.

Sherfield, whose nickname is Shergar, set up the Missing Horse Consultancy almost 25 years ago.

He has been active across a number of industry initiatives including the TC130 technical committee that is responsible for ISO standard developments.

Sherfield also regularly speaks at industry events on his specialist subjects and has brought his expertise to innumerable consultancy projects for a range of clients including paper companies and publishers, as well as working with industry bodies such as the BPIF and Fespa.

Earlier this year he shared his memories of the revolutionary impact the introduction of the Apple Macintosh had on pre-press four decades ago.

Sherfield told Printweek that after suffering a stroke that caused aphasia eight weeks ago he was happily now very much “on the mend”. 

“I’ve been doing rehab with the stroke team, and every day I wake up with new words, and I’ve been walking since day six,” he said.

However, at the age of 77 and following the stroke, he said it was time to step back and focus on his recovery – although he still plans to keep in touch with industry happenings and his many industry friends and contacts.

Sherfield completed Printweek’s Q&A profile in 2016. Read it here.