A multifaceted personality who excels at what he does, who has educational degrees that are as diverse as his roles in Newgen, who reveres his father as the ultimate role model, who, though in a publishing company, loves to dabble in software applications, website development and automating reports, and to top it all, is a very spiritual and socially aware person – meet the genial and interesting John Britto Stephen. Britto has been with Newgen for 18 years and is currently Manager - Copyediting with the Peter Lang team. He holds a postgraduate degree in Zoology and an M.Phil. in Library and Information Science. He joined Newgen as a copyeditor in 2006 and has since held various roles, including project management, editorial assistance and training. On the social responsibility front, Britto is a regular blood donor who donates blood at least twice a year and on request, reflecting his dedication to helping others. Since Britto is also interested in website development, he is currently working on creating a souvenir and website for his church for the inauguration of a new church building. He thinks this is quite a cool thing to be working on in his free time. The highest place of honour in Britto’s life belongs to his father. He is Brittos’s biggest inspiration and role model. He was a man of unwavering principles. Britto says that when his father said 'Yes', he meant it, and when he said 'No', he stood by it. He never compromised his values for anything. His life exemplified hard work, dedication, determination and simplicity. Perhaps because of the strong values instilled in him, Britto has turned out to be a very reliable resource at Newgen. He was entrusted with the responsibility of managing a journals team, overseeing everything from login to issue delivery, including project management, copyediting, typesetting and XML, which he discharged very well. Later, he was tasked with handling the OHO team, improving processes, setting up the workflow for project management and editorial assistance of the Peter Lang division, creating a dynamic tracker, which is now used by both the Project Management and Editorial Assistance teams. Britto is quite passionate about this team. He feels that if his team were a TV show, their theme song would be Vetri Kodi Kattu. This song encapsulates the idea that even if one is facing obstacles, they should be viewed as stepping stones to victory. He says, “It resonates with our team’s spirit of perseverance and determination in overcoming challenges to achieve success.” While working in a college, he computerized various tasks such as attendance, student marks and other administrative details. This he achieved without attending any formal computer course but by learning programming languages on his own. Britto has a few accomplishments to his name and one of them is a recently won third prize in an International Literary Competition. The prize money was 1,000 euros, which he is quite proud of, and rightly so! He closely follows politics and social issues and is passionate about them. He can deliver a 40-minute presentation on these topics without any preparation. Along with these social issues, he also feels strongly about women’s place in society. He feels women are the backbone of families and society: “They deserve equal treatment and opportunities. But unfortunately, even today this is not the case. For example, women coolies are often paid less than their male counterparts despite working equally or even more. It is crucial that they receive fair and equal treatment,” says Britto. Someone who holds such high values and is so passionate about things that matter, Britto sure is a wonderful human being to know and an asset to the company.
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