RyanChai

Category Lead, Labels & Packaging — Nobelus

I build business environments that have to perform — in print, packaging, and the software that sits next to them. I started on the production floor (color, press, workflow, accounts), supported the HP Indigo catalog as a Solutions Architect, stood up digital flexible packaging at Kala, and now lead the labels and packaging category at Nobelus across North America and Europe. Product marketing, multi-channel campaigns, and the nexus of software, AI, and print strategy.

1. Nobelus

   North America & Europe

   Oct 2025 – Present

   Category Lead — Labels & Packaging

   • Own the labels and packaging category: product direction, converter education, and finishing solutions that hold up in production.
   • Partner with prime-label and flexible-packaging converters to optimize workflows and identify the right materials for long-term growth.
   • Represent the category with brand owners and partners — Bobst, thermal pre-lams, and the finishing stack that sells the pack.

   Apr 2021 – Oct 2025

   Strategic Solutions Manager

   • Joined in a newly formed role focused on new business development and market expansion in labels and flexible packaging.
   • Solutions consultant for key accounts — translating press-floor reality into Nobelus product and process.
   • Taught customers and shared flexible-packaging insight as the core of the work, not an add-on.

2. Kala

   Orem, Utah

   Apr 2019 – Jan 2021

   Director of Flexible Packaging

   • Led digital flexible packaging as a new product line for the business.
   • Earlier at Kala: VP of Technology & Sales Support, Solutions Architect, and Product Marketing Manager.
   • Directed technical and go-to-market work at the intersection of HP Indigo digital print and packaging conversion.

3. HP Indigo

   North America

   2013

   Solutions Architect

   • Technical sales support for the North American Labels & Packaging team.
   • Product-management support across the HP Indigo catalog of solutions.

4. Label & packaging production

   United States

   Early career

   Production floor

   • Color management, printing, print-production workflows, and account acquisition — the ground truth the later roles are built on.

• Software, AI & indie apps

  Native and web tools I actually ship. I live where software, AI, and a real customer problem overlap.

• Labels & packaging — Nobelus

  Category Lead for labels and packaging. I sit with converters and brand owners, translate process into product, and pick finishing that holds up in the real world.

• Photography

  Not a business. A craft I take seriously. Light, land, and the quiet of being outside.

• First-principles systems

  Strip the problem to constraints. Then rebuild — product, household, or a process that has to last.

• iOS

  Stoke BBQ

  A cooking companion for people who take fire seriously. Built to be used, not demoed.

• Product

  Family management tools

  Today screens, progress, and a household reward system that keeps kids moving without turning home into a dashboard.

• iOS

  Sunhouse

  A homeschooling home — curriculum, rhythm, and the work of teaching our kids ourselves. More context coming.

• Health

  Treasure

  A personal health app. Quiet tracking and habits — built for me, useful to anyone who wants to stay honest about the body.

• Finance

  Steward

  A personal finance app and the system around it. See the money. Decide on purpose. Stay a steward, not a passenger.

• Relationships

  Bridge

  An app for the relationships that matter. Small, regular attention — so the important people don’t get the leftovers.

• iOS

  Garb

  Fit check and apparel inventory, coupled with AI. What’s in the closet, what works, what to wear — on iPhone.

• Family

  The most important job. Keep the door open. Keep it light when it can be light.

• Building

  Land, shop, systems, software. Make the next useful thing exist.

• Outdoors

  Camping, overlanding, roughing it. The tractor. Dirt under the nails. I am happiest working the yard or sleeping under a bigger sky.

• Faith

  Love God first. Love neighbor second. In that order.