**Exhibit 31.1**

CERTIFICATIONS

I, Dennis J. Martin, certify that:

I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of General Binding  Corporation; 
Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue  statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to  make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such  statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by  this quarterly report; 

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financialinformation included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all materialrespects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of theregistrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report; 

4. The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible forestablishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined inExchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financialreporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for theregistrant, and have:

a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused suchdisclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, toensure that material information relating to the registrant, including itsconsolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities,particularly during the period in which this quarterly report is beingprepared;

b) Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused suchinternal control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision,to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reportingand the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordancewith generally accepted accounting principles;

c) Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls andprocedures and presented in this quarterly report our conclusions about theeffectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of theperiod covered by this quarterly report based on such evaluation;and

d) Disclosed in this quarterly report any change in the registrant's internalcontrol over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant's mostrecent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely tomaterially affect, the registrant's internal control over financial reporting;and 

5. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based onour most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to theregistrant's auditors and the audit committee of registrant's board of directors(or persons performing the equivalent functions):

a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design oroperation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonablylikely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to record, process,summarize and report financial information; and

b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or otheremployees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal control overfinancial reporting.

Date: May 10, 2005

/s/ Dennis J. Martin

Dennis J. Martin