Dali Zhang
Managing Director, Asia
RISI

Dali Zhang joined RISI in March 2010 as Managing Director – Asia and Chief Representative of RISI’s Shanghai Office. Prior to working with RISI, he was Vice President and Head of Corporate Development at Norske Skog China. Between 1996 and 2007, Dali was working with Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting in Singapore, New York and Shanghai. Dali has more than 20 years of research, consulting and general management experience in the forest products industry, both in Asia and North America. His key areas of expertise include business and marketing strategies, business and corporate development, and quantitative analysis and forecasting of the global forest products industry. One of the most experienced forest products industry consultants in China, Dali has assisted numerous companies – both foreign and Chinese – on all aspects of businesses related to China and its integration with the rest of the world. Over the last 15 years, he has actively worked with both private and public sector clients in the region.

Dali holds a Ph.D. in Forest Economics from University of Wisconsin – Madison and a MS in Forest Operations from University of Alberta. He also has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology in China.

RR Vederah
RISI 2011 Asian CEO of the Year
Managing Director
Ballarpur Industries Limited

Mr. Rajeev Ranjan Vederah is Managing Director of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), the largest paper producer in India and Malaysia. BILT is a part of 3 Bn dollar Avantha Group and has six manufacturing facilities in India and one in Malaysia with a capacity of over 900,000 MT of paper per annum, consisting of Woodfree Coated and Uncoated writing & printing paper and copier paper, and 95,000 MT of Rayon grade pulp per annum.

Mr. R R Vederah has been with BILT, for over 25 years, where he has contributed significantly to its turnaround and growth. Currently, he is driving the overall business plan and is responsible for the company's top-line and bottom-line volume and growth, along with managing its Business operations.

Mr. Vederah is also involved in the development of BILT's organization and Business Strategy towards a mandate to achieve the company's aggressive growth plans. He is also the key driver of new technology and quality initiatives aimed at taking BILT to in the South Asian region.

Mr. Vederah is the Chairman of Solaris Chemtech Industries Ltd and BILT Industrial Packaging Company Limited, and a key member of the Avantha Group Council.

He sits on the boards of various companies, including BILT Tree Tech Limited, The Paperbase Company Limited, BILT Graphic Paper Products Limited, Ballarpur International Holdings B.V., Ballarpur International Paper Holdings B.V., Ballarpur International Graphic Paper Holdings B.V., Sabah Forest Industries Sdn. Bhd., and Imerys NewQuest (India) Private Limited.

Mr. Vederah is a Chemical Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from University of Aston, Brimingham, U.K. He has interest in Cricket and plays Golf.

Nick Chang
Editor, PPI Asia
RISI

Nick Chang joined RISI in 2000 as News Editor of PPI Asia, rising to Senior News Editor in 2005 and Deputy Editor in 2009. He is now Editor of PPI Asia and specializes in reporting on the Asian pulp market and the Chinese paper and board industry. He also covers a wide range of grades and countries across the region and manages the news team in Asia.

Originally from Taiwan, Nick speaks Mandarin Chinese, the Chinese dialect Hokkien and English, as well as reading Japanese. He has an engineering degree, and moved into newspaper journalism, covering political and economic news for seven years and becoming a chief reporter with a major Taiwanese newspaper, after going to journalism graduate school in Taiwan.

Masataka Hayama
President
Japan Paper Association

Masataka Hayama was born in 1949 and has a degree in law from the Kyoto University, Japan. He joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) (currently the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry: METI) in 1973. He had served in a variety of government posts including Deputy Director–General of Environment Bureau and Deputy Director–General of Small and Medium Enterprise Agency during his twenty–eight years in the METI from 1973 to 2001, engaging on the policy planning for international trade, environment, energy and industrial development.

Mr. Hayama entered into the pulp and paper industry in 2008 as President of the Japan Paper Association after he had served in the posts such as Executive Managing Director of Japan Information Processing Development Corporation (JIPDEC) and President and CEO of Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co., Ltd. following his retirement from METI.

Vince Erasmus
Managing Director
Elders Forestry Pty Ltd.

Mr Erasmus was appointed managing director of Elders Forestry Pty Ltd (formally ITC Limited), one of the largest hardwood plantation companies in Australia, in February 2006.

Prior to Elders Forestry, and spanning a thirty year career, Vince has held numerous senior executive positions in the South African Forestry and Timber sector with a focus on international trade, investment, softwood and hardwood yield optimisation, timber processing and research and development.

Vince's global experience in Forestry is well regarded in Australia where he is a trusted advisor to State and Federal Government, and numerous company boards, including Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) and the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) of Australia. He is a director of the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) and the World Forestry Centre (WFC) in Portland, Oregon.

Vince is widely credited for encouraging environmental certification and social responsibility among the plantation forestry sector in Australia and under his leadership has partnered Elders Forestry with WWF Australia to promote responsible logging practices in the Asia Pacific region.

Ray Barbee
Senior Vice President, Wood, Timber & Biomass
RISI

Ray Barbee was in born and reared near Charlotte, North Carolina. He has an Undergraduate degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MBA from USC in Columbia, SC. Ray has been in the forest products industry for 34 years having held executive officer level positions in sales and marketing with Boise Cascade, Louisiana Pacific, and Roseburg Forest Products in pulp, paper, and wood products: 20 years with Boise Cascade in pulp and paper; 4 years with Louisiana in wood products; and 10 years Roseburg in wood products. He has extensive industry affiliations.

Ray recently joined RISI in July 2010 as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Wood, Timber, and Biomass. He is married with two adult children. Other than work, Ray enjoys biking, running, reading and very little yard work.

Chew Kai Kim
Vice President
Singapore Press Holdings Ltd

Chew Kai Kim started his career in Singapore Press Holdings in 1998 as Senior Manager, Production Engineering. Before joining SPH, he was the Process Director at Seagate Technology media plant in Woodlands. In the following years, he has additional project responsibility in upgrading the Metro presses and subsequently in supporting the development of Phase 2 of the printing plant at Print Centre. The nature of this latter job include working closely with the architectural firm in the building design for the press and mailroom as well as in the evaluation, installation and commissioning of the KBA Commander presses and Ferag mailroom system. In 2006, he was given the Operations responsibility in Production for 2 years. Since then he has been rotated to handle other functions within Production and is currently (since January 2010) holding the appointment of Vice President, Production (Materials, Process, Quality & Admin).

Danny Zheng
President
Xiamen C&D Paper & Pulp

Danny Zheng join board of directors of Xiamen C&D Inc.(SH.600153, a Top 100 Enterprises in China of Standard & Poor's List with annual revenue above 60 billions RMB) in Apr of 2011, he was also appointed as Executive Vice General Manager of C&D Inc. and Chairman of C&D Paper & Pulp. Prior to this appointment, Danny was General Manager of C&D Paper and Pulp for 11 years and lead the company become the biggest marketer and supply chain operator of Paper & Pulp industry in China. Danny holds Bachelor's degree of International Trade in 1993 and was selected the Chairman of Student Union in Xiamen University.

Dr Roger Arnold
Senior Research Scientist
China Eucalypt Research Centre

Roger Arnold is a senior research scientist with the China Eucalypt Research Centre (CERC) – a subunit of the Chinese Academy of Forestry and the country's national research centre for eucalypts. Prior to joining CERC he had more than 25 years experience in various forestry production and research roles in New Zealand, USA, Australia and China. In Australia he spent 12+ years with CSIRO's Australian Tree Seed Centre and worked on numerous R&D projects in Australia and Asia, and particularly in China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Whilst working with Tasman Forestry in New Zealand during the mid 1980s, he was a key member of the team that developed the world's first commercial vegetative propagation program for radiata pine. Roger first travelled to China in 1994 and soon became a frequent visitor to here, working on consultancies and collaborative research projects. In 2006 he moved to China to take up an R&D role with April Forestry in Fujian, and then moved to the CERC in 2008. He has a BSc degree in forestry from Australian National University and MS and PhD degrees in from North Carolina State University.

Pierre Gauthier
Managing Director, Europe
Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC)

Pierre joined the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) in November 2005 as Managing Director for FPAC’s European Program. In this capacity Pierre works closely with the FPAC Team, member companies, Canadian government officials and European industry stakeholders in the development of market acceptance programs and market access advocacy initiatives to promote and protect the interest of the Canadian pulp, paper and wood producers with interests in the European market. In 2009, Pierre has led, in partnership with industry and governments, the development of market strategies and programs for the European and Asian markets.

Zhao Wei
Secretary General
China Paper Association

Mr. Zhao Wei is the Deputy Chairman & Secretary General of the China Paper Association. Born in China in 1960, Mr. Zhao Wei has a bachelor degree and is a Senior Engineer. He was previously an engineer at the China Pulp & Paper Institute, Deputy Chief of HR Division of China Light Industry Department, Director of the Papermaking Branch of the China Light Industry Department, Head of Production Division of China Light Industry Department, and Deputy Director of Papermaking Industry at the China Light Industry Association.

Cameron Wilson
News Editor, PPI Asia
RISI

Cameron Wilson is a professionally qualified British journalist of eight years’ experience and joined RISI as News Editor in September 2009. Prior to this, he worked as a reporter for a regional newspaper in England for three years, covering crime, local government politics, and court reporting. His freelance work appeared in British national newspaper The Sun and on BBC news.

Originally from Dunfermline, Scotland, he relocated to Shanghai in 2005 and worked for a number of business news outlets, including Interfax where he held the position of Pharmaceutical Editor. His association with China stretches back to 2000 having spent a year teaching English in a mainly rural area of Jiangsu Province.

With his solid journalistic background, strong Mandarin and intimate knowledge of China, Cameron is relishing his new position in the pulp and paper industry and looks forward to playing a central role in RISI’s expansion of its Asian market coverage.

Phillip Lawrence
Managing Director
Eco Logical Strategies

Phillip Lawrence has a Masters Research degree in a theory area, Ecological Modernization, his research was a case study of the printing industry sector, which includes the pulp and paper sector. In this research Phillip explored how the industry has responded positively to environmental issues since the Kyoto based year 1990. He is currently writing a PhD thesis at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia where he is exploring Ecological Modernization Theory in regard to international government policy on climate change as it relates to the forestry, pulp and paper industry, in regard to China and Asia Pacific.

Phillip is the Managing Director of Eco Logical Strategies, a Consulting Think Tank engaged in environmental policies in the case of governments and organizations. He has been involved in all facets of the printing industry sector for more than 35 years. Including paper, printing, pre–press and publishing.

Brad Smith
Procurement Manager – China Sourcing Team
Nestlé

Brad Smith is an American Native who has lived in Asia for 11 years.  He first came to Singapore in 2000 with a sourcing consulting firm who pioneered the reverse e-Auction concept.  He joined Nestle in mid-2002 in Bangkok, Thailand as part of the Asia-Oceania-Africa (AOA) Procurement team responsible for rolling out the e-Auction tool and assisting the Nestle markets in AOA to accelerate the adoption of best practices in Indirect Materials procurement.  In 2004 he joined Nestle Thailand to be the Head of Procurement, responsible for all Raw, Packaging and Indirect material purchases in Indochina.  In 2008 he moved to Beijing to head up the procurement arm of the China Sourcing Team.  His key responsibilities were to be the face of Nestle to suppliers in China and ensure that Chinese suppliers are aware of and complying with Nestle quality standards and the Nestle Supplier Code.  This includes the implementation of Responsible Sourcing initiatives in the Chinese market.  Brad holds a Bachelor in Business from Purdue University and a Master of Science in Economics from Louisiana State University.

David Eitemiller
CEO
Hung Hing Printing Group

David Eitemiller is the Chief Executive Officer of Hung Hing Printing Group, one of the largest printers in Asia. Businesses include book and packaging printing, consumer product packaging, corrugated packaging and paper trading; the company has operations located in South and East China. Hung Hing Printing was founded in 1950 and is a publicly listed company in Hong Kong.

Mr Eitemiller has over 20 years experience managing forest products, packaging and printing businesses around Asia, he has held various management positions with Carter Holt Harvey, International Paper and Evergreen Packaging.

LVM Kishore
Assistant Vice President – Business & Commercial
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (Times of India Group)

LVM Kishore has16 years of experience in Commodity Sourcing (Newsprint, & Agricultural products), Capital equipment, Information technology and Telecom. Since January 2007 he is the Asst. Vice President (Newsprint – Sourcing) at Times of India Group.

His role involves strategizing the global procurement of ~ 350,000 tons of Newsprint at an estimated spend of USD 250 million, building an organizational understanding of the Newsprint dynamics – structural market changes, demand–supply equation, cost drivers, cyclical trends and micro issues affecting the Newsprint in India.

Also, LVM Kishore's role is to manage the Newsprint operations of budgeting, planning & scheduling, logistics, inventory, consumption and disposal, relationship with manufacturers, service providers and various Government agencies. He also led Sourcing of Information Technology & Telecom (hardware, software & services) for the group prior to his current assignment.

LVM Kishore previously worked with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Ltd., India and he was responsible of Commodity procurement.

LVM Kishore is trained in "Sourcing Best Practices & Commodity Management" and "6–sigma".

Tina Feng
Procurement Asia Pacific–Direct Material
Kraft Foods

Tina Feng is the Associate Procurement Director for Direct Material in Kraft Foods Asia Pacific, focus on strategic sourcing for both packaging material and raw material ingredients across the Kraft Asia Pacific region, she has moved from Shanghai to Singapore since 2008.

Before join Kraft Foods, she was the Procurement Director for Danone Biscuits China, and had multi–functional experience in Manufacturing and Supply Chain within Danone Group both in China and UK between 2001–2007, started her career as Food technologist with Nestle, and Unilever in China, and had more than 10years experience on product development and quality management.

She has vast experience on various function of business operation, and has led many regional sourcing program with direct material sourcing team in the region (China, SEA, ANZ etc.), also responsible for strategic supplier relationship management, and sustainability sourcing program.

She holds the degree on both Food science and business management.

Matt Graves
Senior Vice President
Pulp & Paper Division, RISI

Matt has worked for over 10 years at RISI with a focus on the global pulp and paper industry. He manages commercial activities with RISI clients globally and travels extensively in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has also led a number of consulting engagements with key clients in Europe and Asia.

Matt received an MBA from Boston University in 1999

Dr. Cheng Shouheng
Vice President
China National Forestry Industry Association

Senior manager with 23 years of business experience in the forestry industry. Current Vice–Chairman of the China Forestry Industry Association and the rotating president of the China Forestry Industry Association. Former Executive Directive of Hong Kong–isted China Grand Forestry Company (Hong Kong listed company's first forestry theme. Chief Executive Officer of Beijing Wan Fu Chun Forest Resources Development Co., Ltd. CEO, Beijing Green Ark Forestry Investment Management Corporation, Ltd. Chairman of the Board, Beijing Grand Rainforest International Forest Investment Corporation, Ltd.

Rita Sim
Executive Director
Media Chinese International

Malaysian, aged 50, was appointed as an executive director of the Company on 20 March 2008. She is a member of the Group Executive Committee and Remuneration Committee of the Company. She is an Executive Director of Sin Chew, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company in Malaysia. Ms SIM obtained a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry and Management from the University of London and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Chinese from Ealing College, London in the United Kingdom. She has significant experience in setting up of joint venture companies with foreign partners in the manufacturing and utility businesses. Ms SIM is also a member of the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs, Malaysia and was a member of the National Advisory Council on the Integration of Women in Development, Malaysia. On 15 December 2009, she has been appointed as a member of the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council Advisory Committee. In April 2010, she was appointed as panel member in assisting SME Corp Malaysia to formulate entrepreneurship programs for women entrepreneurs. She recently co-founded CENSE (Centre for Strategic Engagement), a niche, non-political think tank, which works on policy analysis, industry research and effective advocacy tools to enhance business in a challenging environment. She sits on the Board of Yayasan Sin Chew as a Trustee and holds directorships in several private limited companies in Malaysia.

Sunil Sood
Director
April Fine Paper Trading Pte Ltd

Sunil Sood has about 25 years experience in the Pulp and Paper industry. He started his career in India with M/S Ballarpur Industries in 1981 and managed the export business for glass packaging and later the domestic market for the paper business as a Product Manager. He joined Asia Pulp and Paper in 1988 and managed various senior marketing and business development and executive functions till 2003. Since late 2004, he is leading the Paper business for April in Singapore; having managed Group Strategy for pulp and paper, he is now responsible for the global paper and board businesses.

He has wide experience setting up sales through channels in Asia, Middle East, Australia, Europe and USA covering coated and uncoated woodfree, converted scholastic and office products and packaging grades. He has wide knowledge of markets, equipment procurement and has helped by being on road shows to raise capital for new projects. He is well known in the paper industry circles and has been a speaker in many forums on subjects related to the paper business.

He now leads a growing team of professionals in APRIL running the paper and board business out of the Singapore global headquarters.

He is an avid reader, a budding audiophile with interests in listening to Indian and Western music and is happily married with two sons.

David Katsnelson
Senior Economist, Macroeconomics
RISI

David Katsnelson joined RISI in July 2010, and is responsible for the collecting, analyzing, forecasting, and communicating macroeconomic data and its relevance to clients throughout the forest product industry. He is the editor of RISI's Monthly Economic Commentary and the Economic Outlook chapters that appear in all RISI forecasts. Prior to joining RISI, David had been working at IHS Global Insight as an economist in the Country Analysis and Forecasting Group, as well as consulting for the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a think–tank in Cambridge, MA. David worked for more than a decade in the financial industry as a trader for boutique hedge funds and brokerages in New York and Boston. He also co–founded ProSeed Capital Holdings, an international venture capital company, serving as its CFO and VP of US Operations. David received his MBA in International Economic Policy from Brandeis International Business School, and his B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

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.

Gavin Hao
Forestry Specialist
RISI

Mr Xiaodong (Gavin) Hao holds a Masters Science (Ecology) and Bachelor of Arts (Forestry) from Beijing Forestry University in China. He was previously employed from 2005 to 2009 in forestry operational manager positions for Stora Enso in Guangxi Province. He has recently worked for Pöyry as a consultant in their Shanghai offices from 2009. Gavin joined RISI in August 2010 as forestry specialist.

Gavin has undertaken a number of forest valuations, wood market reviews, due diligence exercises, site suitability, and technical reviews. He has undertaken a number of projects in both plantation and natural forests in China and also in Russia Far East, Cambodia, and Fiji. The focus of his work with Stora Enso was nursery operation, forest management & development and forest protection. Gavin has special skills in Forestry Management and Development, Forestry Growth Modelling, Forestry Valuation Processing, Cost and Price Benchmarking.

Hannah Zhao
Economist, Recovered Paper
RISI

Hannah Zhao joined RISI in 2009 as an economist. Her responsibilities at RISI are focused on the area of world recovered paper and Chinese pulp market. She contributes to monthly commentary, quarterly forecast and long–term forecast on the world recovered paper market.

Hannah holds a Master of Science degree in Resource Economics from University of Rhode Island, and her Bachelor of Science degree in Geography from Beijing Normal University, China.

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 joined RISI in January, 1996.

Grace Feng
Fiber Specialist
RISI

Grace Feng joined RISI in Aug, 2010 as a Fiber Specialist. She works with the global pulp and paper team and focus her efforts on pulp and recovered paper market analysis in China. Grace brings with her over 17 years of working experience in the Chinese pulp and paper sector. She comes to RISI from APRIL Guangdong Fine Paper Co. where she was the Technical Manager for six months. Prior to that, she worked at Norske Skog (Hebei) Paper Mill as a DIP Manager for six years, where she earned much experience of recovered paper handling, market and quality analysis, and deinking technologies of both imported and domestic RP source. She also has over 10 years of teaching and research experience as an Associate Professor in the Pulp and Paper Department of Hebei University of Science and Technology. Grace received both of her master's and bachelor degrees in Chemical Engineering department, Pulp and Paper Technology from Tianjin University of Science and Technology.

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

Surya Raina is Vice President; 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.

Levi Li
Key Account Manager
RISI

Levi Li joined RISI's Shanghai Office as the Asian account manager in January 2008. His main role currently's helping the Asian clients better leverage and benefit from RISI's global resources, to catch up with the latest market info, to better understand the market trend together with the industry cost structure as well, and etc. Before joining RISI, Levi worked with Sinar Mas Group – APP China, as Business Analyst, Sales Superviser and Marketing Intelligence Manager in succession. Levi also worked for Shanghai Leadway Ecommerce Co. Ltd. (www.umpaper.com), one of the most successful local market intelligence in pulp & paper industry, as CEO and head of information services division.

Levi received a MBA degree in Marketing from Fudan University, Shanghai, in 2004. Also, Levi holds two Bachelor degrees: one is Bachelor of Arts, the other is Bachelor of Management.

Patricia Perez
Economist
RISI

Patricia Perez has worked for RISI for five years. Working as Economist at RISI's office in São Paulo, she is responsible for gathering information and providing analysis on the Latin American pulp and paper industry. She also coordinates the elaboration of the Latin American Pulp and Paper Forecast. Patricia comes to RISI from the University of São Paulo where she earned her Bachelors degree in Economics and served as a market analyst for the pulp and paper industry at the Center for Advanced Studies on Applied Economics (CEPEA).

Han Yao
Economist
RISI

Han Yao joined RISI Beijing office as a Junior Economist in September 2010 and is responsible for managing all Asian/Chinese macroeconomic and demographic data updating, forecasting, analysis and writing for the RISI Asia reports. He is in the process of taking over responsibilities of Asian paper packaging analysis and forecast of RISI. Prior to that, Han was a 2010 Summer Analyst at Copal Partners, a UK–based financial consulting firm, conducting economic analysis and business due diligence for a wide variety of industrial projects. Between 2007 and 2008, he worked as a Research Assistant at Washington State Department of Commerce (formerly known as the Dept of Community, Trade and Economic Development or "CTED") and conducted research on international trade and global markets.

Han received a Master's degree in Economics from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, New York. He also holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematical Economics from Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State. Before that, Han spent two years majoring in English at Beijing University of Technology.

Portia Zhao
Product Manager, Cost Benchmarking
RISI

Portia Zhao joined the RISI Shanghai office in September 2006 and is a Product Manager specializing in cost benchmarking for the pulp and paper industry. Portia holds a Master degree of Engineering in Pulp and Paper Technology from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; a Bachelor degree of Economics in International Economics and Trade, and a Bachelor degree of Engineering in Pulp and Paper Technology from the South China University of Technology. Prior to joining RISI, Portia was working with UPM–Kymmene (Changshu) Paper Industry Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, where she was Business Intelligence Analyst for China and the Asia–Pacific region. Portia has also two years of engineering experiences in Advance Agro Pulp & Paper Integrated Co., Ltd. in Prachinburi, Thailand.

Esko Uutela
Principal, Tissue
RISI

Esko Uutela was born in Finland and has worked as a pulp and paper industry consultant for his whole professional career of more than 30 years. He graduated from the Helsinki School of Economics (Marketing) in 1976 and from the University of Helsinki (Faculty of Forestry) in 1979. Since 1991 he is residing in Germany.

After working for close to 18 years for a large forest industry consulting company in Helsinki and Munich, Esko decided to establish his own forest industry consulting company EU Consulting in Starnberg, close to Munich in Germany in August 1994. EU Consulting increasingly specialized in offering consulting services for two sectors: the tissue and recycled fiber businesses. In March 2007, RISI acquired EU Consulting.

Esko has carried out numerous private client projects, as well as published regularly worldwide, comprehensive multi-client studies on tissue business developments and global recycled fiber markets. He is now fully integrated with RISI's team of economists and responsible for all forecasts and market analyses related to the tissue sector. He is also the chief editor of RISI's tissue multi-client reports, including Outlook for World Tissue Business (published annually), World Tissue Business Monitor (quarterly) and US Tissue Monthly Data. In addition, Esko's long consulting experience with deep business and industry understanding has substantially extended RISI's capabilities to carry out comprehensive private client studies in the tissue and recovered paper sectors.

John Maine
Vice President, Graphic Paper
RISI

Mr. Maine is a co–founder of Resource Information Systems Inc., the company that became the analytic component of RISI, the leading information provider for the world forest products industry. John has 30 years of experience in the paper industry and developed the graphic paper segment of RISI. He is a recognized industry expert for Printing & Writing paper markets, prices, analysis, and forecasts. John is a regular speaker and consultant for most major producers worldwide as well as various end–user groups including insert & catalog publishers, magazine publishers, book publishers, paper merchants & brokers, and major commercial printers. He collects industry prices monthly, which are used by buyers and sellers in settling contract prices. John manages all of the world newsprint and printing & writing analysis and forecasts with regional economists located in Helsinki, Brussels, Shanghai, and São Paulo. His published reports include the monthly Paper Trader, World Coated Paper Supply: A risk assessment of capacity closures; World Graphic Paper Forecast; World Graphic Paper Capacity; North American Graphic Paper Forecast; and numerous single and multi–client studies.

John holds a Master of Science degree in Forest Economics with distinction from Virginia Tech. He resides in Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife and three children.

Orifjon Abidov
Economist, European Paper Packaging
RISI

Orifjon Abidov started his career at RISI in 2007 as a Research analyst for European forecasting group. He is in the process of taking over responsibilities of European paper packaging analysis of RISI. He contributes to detailed monthly and quarterly analysis and forecasts of the European paper packaging markets. Orifjon holds Master of Science degree in Applied Economics from Brussels University and Bachelor of International Business from Tashkent University of Economics.

Ken Waghorne
Vice President, Packaging
RISI

Ken has specialized in the paper packaging markets for RISI since 1983. He provides detailed monthly and quarterly analysis and forecasts of the North American paper packaging markets as well as single– and multi–client studies. He developed RISI's international containerboard model as well as the paper packaging models for the Latin American markets. He also produces the RISI end-use market analysis for the Paperboard Packaging Council's Trends Report on the US folding carton industry. Ken also manages RISI's global packaging economic team, and directs the incorporation of the forecasts from North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America into RISI's global reports.

Ken holds a Master of Science degree in Forest Economics from Virginia Tech and his Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from LSU.