Sizer studied at the London College of Printing from 1972-1975, prior to taking up an apprenticeship to be a hot metal compositor at Cambridge University Press.

From there his career took him to Norprint in Boston, and then to Xenotron, which became Hell Xenotron. He worked for Robert Maxwell for a year, then at RIP pioneer Harlequin, going on to spend nearly 20 years at imagesetter manufacturer ECRM.

In 2010 he moved to Highwater CTP to sell equipment from Chinese pre-press manufacturer Cron, subsequently moving on to Marlowe Digital.

Sizer has spent the past four years as regional director at Cron after the company, which is the largest CTP manufacturer in Asia, decided to set up its own European operation in response to burgeoning sales.

“I have seen the most incredible technological changes,” Sizer said. “When I was at CUP they had the second Monotype Lasercomp phototypesetter in the world. They had a whole hot metal department purpose-built for letterpress, and within a couple of years it was all gone.”

While Sizer was working at Xenotron, which had manufactured the world’s first WYSIWYG workstation, he tasked Harlequin with developing a RIP that would run on a Mac or a PC. “I gave them a Mac and a spec and that was the beginning of the Harlequin RIP as we know it,” Sizer recalled.

He said he would miss his many industry contacts built up over the decades.

“I’ve travelled all over the world for 30 years and it’s the people I will miss most. I’ve met so many lovely people and it feels like losing a lot of friends all at once. It’s very emotional.”

He also said he was proud of his achievements at Cron. “It’s been great fun getting Cron Europe going over the last four years and building up the business and its reputation. It will probably be a similar size to Esko in a couple of years.”

Sizer quipped that his retirement plans involved “a lot of house decorating and a long list of jobs”, but said that he might do some consultancy work as well.

He officially retires at the end of this month, and Cron has appointed Stefan Werner (pictured below left, with Sizer) as its new sales director for EMEAR. He joins from Mitsubishi, where he was department manager for international sales and distribution of graphic arts materials.

“I would like to thank Derek Sizer for his huge contribution to Cron Europe – the business has flourished under his stewardship and we all wish him well for the future,” Werner said. “I am committed to driving continued growth in Europe and ensuring Cron becomes the preferred imaging supplier throughout the region.”