JIMMY MORTON

Senior director of production The Dallas Morning News

Nominated by Doug Counts, Printing operations manager

Jimmy has demonstrated innovative leadership during a challenging time for our industry. He has changed our culture to adapt to the needs of the business while managing the declining workforce. Specifically, he has taken on cross-functional work by applying the logical methodology in which he utilizes the specific talents of his managers to achieve departmental goals outside of their usual areas of expertise.

He has also adopted an "employee-first" mentality focusing on the employees below the management level to increase employee involvement and employee morale. He gives a voice to the hourly employee to gain insight into their ideas and address their concerns. A mentorship program accomplishes this that he and his managers participate in with the hourly employees outside of their departments in most cases.