Speaker Bios
Annie Zhu
Features Editor, Pulp & Paper International (PPI) Magazine
and Conference Chair
Annie is an experienced business-to-business writer and editor based in RISI's Shanghai office. She previously worked as a commodities reporter at the Interfax news agency in Shanghai as well as the Financial Times in London.
She holds an M.A. from Bristol University in the UK and a B.A. in International Journalism from Shanghai.
Peter Jaya Negara
Deputy President
APRIL
Mr. Jaya Negara has close to 30 years of experience in the Asian plantation forestry, pulp and paper and wood industries. During this time he has spear-headed, from "green-field" sites, the development of world's largest and most advanced plantation supply and production operations.
Currently serving as Vice President of APRIL's China operations, Mr. Jaya Negara is responsible for new project development in Shandong Rizhao, paper production in Guangdong Xinhui, new project development in Fujian Putian, and for reforestation and plantation development in Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
Previous to this Mr. Jaya Negara was Deputy President for RGMI group Global Fiber Resources (FiberOne). In this role, covering extensive plantation operations in Sumatra, Kalimantan, China and Brazil, Mr. Jaya Negara coordinated the implementation of best-practice forest management strategy in line with highest standards of corporate social responsibility, including ground-breaking adoption of High Conservation Management Forest principles, Indonesia's first certified plantation operations, site specific crop management with intensive R&D to produce highest yields, and has ensured long-term sustainable supply to the world's largest pulp mill.
Mr. Jaya Negara has leveraged a degree in Forestry Engineering from National University of Taiwan, and this wide practical experience, to support APRIL's transformation into an integrated plantation, pulp and paper producer acknowledged globally by customers, peer companies and society.
Michael Spencer
Chief Executive
FSC Australia
Michael Spencer is actively involved in the development and management of environmental verification and labeling programs. He is the founding Chief Executive of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Australia; he is a founding Director of the Water Stewardship Initiative, and; he provides consultancy services to organizations such as the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance and the International Responsible Mine Assurance Program. He also consults widely on economic and public policy issues in Australia.
As Honorary Chief Executive of FSC Australia he has seen the FSC system in that country grow ten-fold in terms of Chain of Custody certificates and become a major consideration in the procurement decisions of companies in the building and construction industry as well as paper, printing and publishing industries.
Previously he worked as Head of Marketing and Communication for FSC International in Bonn, Germany. Prior to that he was the Vice President Communication for the world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton, and he was the first Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Australia's largest financial services group the National Australia Bank. He has also worked as an Adviser to the Premier of Victoria (Australia).
Yunyong Puthapipat
Managing Director
Siam Kraft Industry Company
Current positions include Managing Director of Siam Kraft Industry Company Limited (Thailand) and Thai Kraft Paper Industry Company Limited (Thailand); General Director of Vina Kraft Paper Company Limited (Vietnam); Director of United Pulp and paper Co., Inc. (Philippines); Member of the Board of The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI); Chairman of Pulp and Paper Industry Club and of The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI); Vice President of The Thai Pulp and Paper Industries Association (TPPIA); and Director of Banknote Management Committee, Bank of Thailand.
Yunyong Puthapipat has previous experience as Procurement Director at Siam Kraft Industry Company Limited and Managing Director of Thai Cane Paper Public Company Limited.
Ross Li
Executive Director
Lee & Man
Mr. Li is responsible for the daily operation, sales and management of Lee & Man paper mills. He is also responsible for setting the strategic marketing strategy for pulp and paper sales for the group. He holds a Masters Degree in Science (Electrical Engineering) from Stanford University in U.S.A. and a bachelor's degree of Applied Science (Computer Engineering) from University of British Columbia in Canada.
Mr. Li has over 10 years of experience in production management and in sales and marketing. He joined the Group in December 2002, and is now an Executive Director of Lee & Man Paper Mfg. Co. Ltd.
Zhang Dingjun
General Manager Assistant & Vice Chief Engineer
Guizhou Chitianhua
Zhang Dingjun has been engaged in the pulp & paper industry for nearly 20 years. His work with Guizhou Chitianhua includes a Bamboo Forest-Pulp-Paper Integration Project. It is the biggest single line of bamboo pulp. As part of this project, he oversaw the whole project construction, including the technology communion, selection of pulping process solution, technical negotiation, design liaison, etc. He graduated Sichuan University with a Master of Engineering.
Alan Bog
Commercial Manager, Asia
Westerlund Group
Mr. Alan Bog started his career working for a major ship-owner. He has spent the last 25 years working in the transportation side of the Pulp and Paper Industry, much of this time being involved amongst other activities in the shipment of raw materials from Europe to Asia.
He has recently been appointed Commercial Manager Asia for the Westerlund Group and is now based in Shanghai.
Alan also serves as a Director of IFPTA (International Forest Products Transport Association).
Rod Young
Chairman
RISI
Rod Young started modeling and forecasting in the pulp and paper industry in 1977. Since then, his work in international pulp and paper markets has received worldwide recognition. Rod now consults on a regular basis with companies throughout the world. He continues to assist in the development of the RISI analysis and forecast of the world forest products market and has taken on the formidable task of reading through all of the monthly commentaries produced by RISI.
In March 2005, he became President and CEO of Paperloop, which was later renamed RISI in 2006. Rod was appointed Chairman of RISI's Board of Directors in January 2007 upon retiring from his position as President and CEO after 29 years in the pulp and paper industry.
Rod received a Master of Science degree in Forestry Economics from Virginia Polytechnical Institute in 1977 and also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Michigan State University.
Thomas E. Gestrich
President, IP Asia
and Senior Vice President, IP
Thomas E. Gestrich (Tom) is President of International Paper Asia and is responsible for the company's business in the Asian Region.
Tom joined International Paper in 1990 and has served in general manager positions with Nicolet, Thilmany, vice president and general manager of Bleached Board and vice president and general manager of the Beverage Packaging Business and senior vice president, Consumer Packaging. He began his career in 1972 with Procter & Gamble in paper manufacturing, where he held various manufacturing positions.
Tom received his bachelor's degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering and his master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
Now he is located in Shanghai China.
Brendan Lowney
Vice President, Pulp & Paper Information
RISI
Brendan Lowney has analyzed the global macroeconomy for RISI in Bedford, Massachusetts since 1994. He began directing RISI's Macro Service in 1997 and became Chief Economist in 2001. He edits RISI's Monthly Economic Commentary and is responsible for the US and international macroeconomic analysis and forecast work, which form the basis for RISI's industry projections. The Macro Service covers concepts such as interest rates, exchange rates, inflation and national income account analysis of the macroeconomy across most regions of the world.
Brendan has spoken at numerous Conferences in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. In addition to his regular macroeconomic work, Brendan has done policy analysis for several of RISI's single and multi-client studies.
Scott Howard
Economist, Macroeconomics
RISI
Scott Howard joined RISI's macroeconomic analysis team in January 2006. He assists in US and international economic forecast work and writes for RISI's Monthly Economic Commentary. In addition, Scott helps produce the macroeconomic outlook sections of RISI's quarterly and long-term forecasts and has contributed to a number of multi-client studies.
Scott holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Dave Clapp
Senior Economist, Recovered Paper
RISI
David Clapp specializes in economic information and forecasts of the international recovered paper markets for RISI. He has constructed comprehensive models, which analyze consumption, trade, supply, costs, and prices for recovered paper. David consults with client companies throughout the world and has participated in several multiclient studies over the past twenty years. He writes a monthly commentary on the international recovered paper industry and conducts extensive analysis of the worldwide recovered paper markets on a quarterly basis.
David holds a Master of Science degree in Forestry Economics from the University of Maine where he also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry.
Kurt Schaefer
Vice President, Fiber
RISI
Kurt's responsibilities at RISI are focused on the area of wood pulp. He publishes a monthly commentary and forecast on the world pulp market, World Pulp Monthly. He also produces to RISI's long-term pulp forecasts, focusing on variables such as pulp consumption, capacity, production, production costs, and pricing. 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 editorial projects, including a major long-term study of global newsprint markets. He reached ABD status in the Ph.D. program in Economics at the University of Virginia.
In 1995, he received the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from the Association of Investment Management and Research (AIMR).
Brad Kalil
Director of Tissue
RISI
Brad Kalil joined RISI in 2008. In his role as Director of Tissue, Brad serves as product manager for RISI's tissue economic analysis and news and is a major contributor to several of its reports. RISI's tissue coverage, recognized worldwide as the most comprehensive tissue information available, includes World Tissue Business Monitor Service, Outlook for World Tissue Business, U.S. Tissue Monthly Data, an annual World Tissue Capacity Report, and a World Tissue Annual Historical Data report.
Prior to joining RISI, Brad spent seven years at Weyerhauser, Inc. as the Business Intelligence Manager to the Cellulose Fibers business and as the Research Manager to the Market and Economics Research corporate group. As Business Intelligence Manager, Brad identified, analyzed, and communicated customer and pulp marketing information and supported the sales force in educating customers on market movements. In addition, he pinpointed and commercialized new market, service, and product opportunities.
Brad's career within research and analysis stretches back to 1987; he previously served as Research Director, Director of Market Research, and Vice President for other organizations in Washington state.
Brad received his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington. He resides in Seattle, Washington with his two children.
Surya P. Raina
Vice President, Mill Intelligence
RISI
Mr. Raina has over 25 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry. He is a Chemical Engineer and has 15 years of operational experience in the Asian pulp and paper industry.
Since 2002 SP has been working with RISI benchmarking services and has recently assumed the responsibility as Vice President of Mill Intelligence group. Prior to that he spent eight years working as consultant with Jacobs Sirrine Consultants and Simon Consulting group based in Atlanta.
SP specializes in cost benchmarking of graphic papers and is well versed with the cost structure of graphic papers in different geographical regions. He has also been actively involved in due diligence and optimization studies.
Portia Zhao
Benchmarking Analyst
RISI
Portia Zhao joined RISI as a Benchmarking Analyst in RISI Shanghai office in Sep. 2006 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.
John Maine
Vice President, Graphic Papers
RISI
John Maine is Vice President of RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. He cofounded Resource Information Systems, Inc., the company that became the analytic component of RISI.
Mr. Maine has specialized in printing and writing paper and newsprint markets, end uses, supply, costs and pricing for 27 years. More than 200 RISI clients worldwide rely on his detailed monthly and quarterly analysis and forecasts of the graphic paper markets as well as single and multiclient studies. His published reports include the monthly "Paper Trader", the quarterly "North American Graphic Paper Forecast", and the quarterly "World Graphic Paper Forecast".
Mr. Maine holds a Master of Science degree in Forest Economics with distinction from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He resides in Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife and three children.
Sandy Lu
Economist, Graphic Papers
RISI
Sandy Lu, Economist, Shanghai, has been working in the Asian Service helping with RISI's coverage of Asian graphic paper and pulp markets. Ms. Lu did her undergraduate work at the University of Science and Technology East China, and holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Cardiff, United Kingdom. She is fluent in English, Cantonese and the Shanghai dialect.
Alex He
Economist, Asian Packaging Service
RISI
Alex He joined RISI as an analyst at its headquarters in Boston in the summer of 2004. Alex was promoted to Economist - Asian Paper Packaging Service, covering both Asian containerboard and boxboard market analysis and forecasting in 2005. In the spring of 2006, Alex was relocated to Shanghai, China to open and run RISI’s Shanghai representative office. Alex has been RISI’s China representative since then.
Alex received his MBA degree in International Economics from Brandeis University in 2004 and also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Trade from Soochow University, China.
