ATypI, the global typography association, is pleased to announce that, during the September 8 Board meeting, the ATypI Board elected Thomas Phinney (USA), as the new President of ATypI, and Sumanthri Samarawickrama (Sri Lanka) was re-elected as Vice President, both members of the Executive. Both were unopposed. As this created a vacancy in Thomas’ former role as Secretary, Thomas appointed Henrique Nardi (Brazil/USA), the only declared candidate, to that position; an election for Secretary will occur at the next board meeting in October. This Board meeting was the first for the new board members elected on August 31.
Incoming President Thomas Phinney praised outgoing President Crystian Cruz’ long service.
Crystian served on the board for six years, and as President for his final year. He led ATypI through a challenging time and difficult transition, returning to our first live conference after three years without. On behalf of myself, the board, and ATypI, I am immensely pleased to publicly express immense gratitude and appreciation for his hard work and achievement serving ATypI and the broader typographic community.
New President Thomas Phinney has been attending ATypI since the 1999 Boston conference. Before rejoining the board this past February, he previously served as a Board member from 2004–2020, including many years as Treasurer, as well as periods as Vice President and Secretary. He is known for his long-time font industry roles at Adobe, Extensis and FontLab, and being the world’s only font forensic specialist. He also currently develops Google’s Material Design icon fonts, and teaches new type designers.
Returning Vice President Sumanthri was just re-elected to the board, having served since 2020. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Integrated Design at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, and has a PhD in Sinhala Typography. She has brought several conferences to Sri Lanka, including the well-known and long-running regional conference Typo Day (2017), and the ATypI Working Seminar in Colombo (2019).
Acting Secretary Henrique Nardi attended his first ATypI in Prague in 2004. In 2015, he played a vital role in bringing the conference to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, in his hometown of São Paulo. Recently, he was elected to the board of directors and volunteered to lead the Communications committee.