TORONTO—Sally Pirri, The Globe and Mail’s director of production, is one of seven recipients of the 2012 Women of Distinction Award from the U.S.-based publisher OutputLinks Communications Group.

“The award definitely was not expected,” says Pirri, the only Canadian on this year’s list. “But it was an honour to be recognized in the industry.”

Launched by OutputLinks ten years ago, the Women of Distinction program aims to recognize the achievements and successes of women in the high-volume transaction output (HVTO) industry. This year’s recipients were honoured in October at Graph Expo 2012.

Pirri started at The Globe with a part-time call centre job. She was still in school at the time, studying finance, and she says it was long ago enough that HR no longer has a record of her start date.

After graduation, The Globe beat an accounting job offer to keep Pirri on staff. “I was having so much fun, I thought, I can do accounting later. And I just never left,” Pirri says. She was promoted to director, production, in 2002.

Pirri says her most rewarding career achievements came in 2010, when the paper redesigned and upgraded its plants and presses to hybrid presses. That same year, she helped negotiate The Globe’s 18-year printing contract with Transcontinental and Glacier Media.