Paul Brown
President, International Paper India
Executive Chairman and CEO, Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills

Paul Brown is President, International Paper India since June 2011. Paul has overall responsibility for International Paper’s business in India, including Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Limited (APPM), a leading India paper company in which International Paper acquired majority ownership in October 2011. Paul is the Executive Chairman and CEO of APPM.

Prior to this position in India, Paul was President, International Paper Asia in Shanghai, China where he was responsible for the company’s USD 1.8 Billion in turnover and 9,000 employees across several businesses and countries in Asia.

Paul joined International Paper in 1984. During his career with the company, he has held various engineering, manufacturing, sales, supply chain and general management positions in paper and packaging in the United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia. Paul has served as Vice Chairman of the IP-Sabanci joint venture in Turkey, Chairman of the IP-CMCP joint venture in Morocco, and Vice Chairman of the IP-Sun joint venture in China.

Paul holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, USA and an MBA from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Paul is based in Hyderabad, India.

Bob Flynn
Director, International Timber
RISI

Robert (Bob) Flynn is Director, International Timber for RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. Bob has more than 30 years experience in the forest industry, including 9 years as a forester for Champion International in Oregon. He has spent the past 20+ years as a consultant to the industry, with a focus on analysis of timber supply and demand trends outside of North America; international trade of logs, woodchips, and biomass; and trends in international timberland investment. He joined RISI in April 2006, and has published two reports on China's timber supply and demand; a global comparison of planted forest economics and investment attractiveness for tree farm development; a profile of India’s forest products industry; an analysis of the impact of Russia's log export tax on Asian log markets; annual reports on international trade in woodchips and biomass; and most recently he published a report on South American plantation forestry and bioenergy markets. He holds a BA degree in geography from the University of Texas, a BS degree in forest management from Northern Arizona University and an MS in economics from the University of Oregon.

Anil Kumar
Executive Director & CEO
Shreyans Industries Limited

Anil Kumar is presently working as Executive Director & CEO of Shreyans Industries Limited, one of the leading agro based paper making Company of India. Shreyans Industries is a market leader in adapting and absorbing latest technologies. Its products are well received in the market.

Anil is past President of Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association [IPPTA] and is presently Senior Vice President of Indian Agro & Recycled Paper Mills Association [IARPMA].

He is also a Council Member of Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute [CPPRI] and also represents industry on Research Advisory Committee of CPPRI and Cess Funds Committee of Ministry of Industries, Govt. of India.

Kurt Schaefer
Vice President, Fiber
RISI

Kurt heads up RISI's analysis of the pulp and recovered paper segments of the industry. His primary responsibilities are focused on the area of papergrade pulp. He publishes a monthly commentary and forecast on the world pulp market, World Pulp Monthly. He also produces RISI’s long-term pulp forecasts, focusing on variables such as pulp consumption, capacity, production, production costs, and pricing. In 2009, Kurt helped to develop RISI's Outlook for Global Recovered Paper Markets, a successful multi-client study. In 2010, he is leading a team of RISI analysts and economists doing a multi-client study of China's fiber markets. Just prior to joining RISI, Kurt was Director of Pulp & Paper Forecaster. As the sole economist working on Forecaster, he was responsible for forecasting prices and market conditions across all of the major grades of paper and paperboard in North America. His work on Forecaster included developing detailed end-user driven demand models for the key grades, including newsprint, coated papers, and containerboard. He also directed a number of projects, including a major long-term study of global newsprint markets. In 1995, he received the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He jointed RISI in January, 1996.

N Gopala Ratnam
Chairman and Managing Director
Seshasayee Paper and Boards

Gopala Ratnam is the Chairman and Managing Director of Seshasayee Paper and Boards Limited, Tamil Nadu- India – a pioneer in promoting the use of sugarcane bagasse as raw material for the Indian Paper Industry.

Gopala Ratnam is a leading Technocrat of the Indian Paper Industry with wide experience in the fields of design, setting-up and management of Paper manufacturing units.

He is the past President of Indian Paper Manufacturers’ Association as well as Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association.

Gopala Ratnam is the Chairman of SPB-ESVIN Group which has interests in Paper, Sugar, specialized Batteries for defence applications and paper engineering Consultancy services.

Surya Raina
Vice President, Mill Intelligence, Pulp & Paper Division
RISI

Surya Raina is Vice President of Mill Intelligence for RISI. Surya is a Chemical Engineer with over 30 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry, including 15 years of operational experience in the Asian pulp and paper industry. His career in mill operations included working at Ballarpur industries, India and Phoenix pulp and paper, Thailand. Prior to joining RISI, he spent eight years working as a consultant with Jacobs Sirrine Consultants and Simon Consulting group.

Surya specializes in cost benchmarking and is well versed in the cost structure of pulp and paper board grades across different world regions. He has also been actively involved in due diligence, risk and optimization studies. Surya has recently been involved in leading a major product launch at RISI, which involved developing the company's new web based cost benchmarking service. Surya leads a team of engineers based in North America, Asia and Europe.

Sridhar Chandrasekhar
Head, CRISIL Research
CRISIL Limited

Sridhar leads the auto and energy research teams at CRISIL Research.

He has an experience of eighteen years in industry and company research. Besides working closely with banks in their lending decisions, he also advises corporates in areas of product selection, market estimation and demand forecasting.

In his earlier roles, Sridhar was responsible for researching and providing opinion on various sectors including paper, sugar, textiles, hotels, hospitals and educational services. He also led a team that worked closely with the Government of India on policy reforms in the textiles industry.

Sridhar is a Commerce graduate from the University of Madras and holds an MBA from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

Sanjay Singh
Divisional Chief Executive
ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division

Prior to this, he was the Chief Operating Officer of the business. A chemical engineer from IIT Kanpur, Singh joined the erstwhile ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited as a management trainee in 1977 and rose to become a whole time director in 1999.

Consequent to the merger of ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited with ITC Limited, in March 2002, he took charge of the Paperboards & Specialty Papers Division as Executive Vice President (Manufacturing) with responsibility for Bhadrachalam, Tribeni, Kovai and Bollaram units.

He has played a vital role in the implementation of TPM and Lean manufacturing in all the units.

Yogesh Agarwal
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Ballarpur Industries Limited

Yogesh Agarwal, a Mechanical Engineer with Advance Management from Harvard Business School, started his career as a Management Trainee in Automobile Sector and then moved on to White goods sector and soon became General Manager for Sales. He joined the flagship company of Avantha Group – Ballarpur Industries Limited, the No.1 paper company in India, in 1999, for heading the paper business (sales & marketing) function. His modern way of thinking has made him a role model for young professionals based on sound values and uncompromising integrity. Today, he is the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (BIGPH), directly responsible for EBITDA and ROCE for paper business in order to drive best in class systems in business and sustainable business growth.

He is also responsible for conceptualizing Stationery distribution business and Office Supplies Retail business. Both these businesses have been built from scratch.

His strength lies in bringing together and building charged teams of high potential-high performing people. His vision and pragmatism have helped Bilt to become a successful company in India and abroad.

Truly an outdoor person and a dynamic salesman at heart, he attributes his success to hard work, passion and unconventional thinking. His innovative, customer-centric and market-backed mindset has impacted not only the organization but the paper industry as well.

Vijay Gupta
Managing Director
DaiEi Papers SA

Vijay Gupta is a keen student of the Pulp and Paper Industry and highly passionate about the role of paper in our present and in our future.

He also studied Finance and Transportation during his MBA at The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

He is the Managing Director of DaiEi Papers SA a Joint Venture with DaiEi of Japan that trades Pulp & Paper Globally and lives in Singapore.

He describes his function as ''having lunch with friends'' which he has been doing across 40 countries over the last 25 years.

He strongly believes The Paper Industry does not need to worry about thinking Outside the Box or Inside the Box - We should just stay focused on the Box!

Sunil Poddar
Managing Director
Poddar Global Limited

Mr. Sunil Poddar is the founder and Managing Director of Poddar Global Limited, a leading newsprint paper distributions in India, with its own Supply Chain facility and Warehouses with more than 3,00,000 square feet along with a Paper Conversion unit in all major Indian Port towns including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Cochin and New Delhi. Every year, along with Subsidiary Companies, Poddar Global supplies more than 2,00,000 Metric Tons of Standard Newsprint and other Publication Paper to more than 300 Indian Newspapers and Magazines.

Mr. Poddar is a graduate in commerce with a thorough grasp of the Indian Companies Act, which is critical for evaluating decisions and plans within the statutory framework. He has worked in the industry for more than two decades. His foresight approaches always give a positive push & growth to the organization as well as Newsprint and Newspaper Industry in India. This characteristic emerges from his deep commitment to the industry and to the people he is committed to as ‘Partners in Progress’.

Mr. Sunil Poddar started his career working in Newspaper Company having worked in advertising, editorial, press freedom, and with Government authorities on owner’s behalf. He is the son of renowned journalist, late Mr. Ram Karan Poddar.

He is also a member of Press Club of India, Indian Newspaper Society, Audit Bureau of Circulation and Indian Newsprint Manufactures Association.

Madhukar Mishra
Managing Director
Star Paper Mills Limited

Madhukar Mishra has been Managing Director of Star Paper Mills Limited since 2001.

Star Paper is part of Duncan Goenka Group, a diversified conglomerate with interests in Tea Plantations, Manmade Fibres and Engineering besides Paper.

Prior to his appointment in Star, Madhukar was Sr. Vice President - Corporate affairs in the Duncan Goenka Group. His previous stints in different companies have provided him exposure to Pharmaceuticals, Petrochemicals, Engineering, Food Ingredients, Cement and Manmade Fibres Industries where he played key roles in Operations, Strategic Planning, M & A, International Trading, Procurement and Logistics functions.

Madhukar is currently President of the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA).

He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Science from University of Pune and Diploma in Management from University of Mumbai.

Shri P.S. Patwari
Executive Director
Emami Paper Mills Ltd

Shri P.S.Patwari was associated with M/s S.R.Batliboi & Co., a leading Chartered Accountant firm, during the period of his Article-ship and started his career as Commercial Executive of M/s Hindustan Motors Limited, a member of renowned Birla Group of Industries. He joined the company, Emami Paper Mills Limited, in the year 1984.

His extensive knowledge in finance, accounting, marketing, strategic planning in corporate affairs, business development, project implementation and overall management exposed his ability to be the Senior Executive of the Company and thereafter for his brilliance, dedication and outstanding ability coupled with keen insight, tenacity and fair-sightedness he was elevated to the position of Executive Director on 01.12.1996.

He is also associated with Treasury Operations and in the strategic business planning of various Emami Group of Companies and is considered as one of the stewards of the Business House.

He represents various chambers of commerce in various positions and is President of Indian Newsprint Manufacturers Association, Chairman of Commercial sub-committee of Indian Paper Manufacturers Association, Vice President of Indian Agro & Recycled Paper Mills Association and member of Indian Chamber Of Commerce & Industry, Merchant Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry Confederation of Indian Industry and Central Pulp And Paper Research Institute. He is regarded as one of the most eminent personalities in the newsprint industries for his brilliance and vast experience.