Speaker Bios

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.

Rocky Goodnow
Senior Economist
RISI

Rocky Goodnow has been a timber economist with RISI since 2002. Mr. Goodnow is responsible for the RISI Timber Models, which are used in the analysis of the future demand for wood fiber in North American markets, regional timber supplies, and the potential returns of timberland investments. In addition, he is the key contributor to the analysis and production of RISI's North American Timber Forecast and other RISI timber related publications and studies.
Mr. Goodnow attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he earned both a B.S. in Forestry and a M.S. in Forest Economics and Management.

Bob Flynn
Director of International Timber
RISI

Robert Flynn is Director of International Timber for RISI. His work involves analysis of trends in international timber supply and demand and trade in pulpwood and sawlogs. Prior to joining RISI in April 2006, he worked 18 years as a consultant with several firms including Wood Resources International, assisting clients in understanding trends in forest resources, forest ownership, and industrial development in Southern Hemisphere plantation forest countries, China, and elsewhere. In addition, Robert worked 11 years as a forester, primarily for Champion International in Oregon. Projects in 2006 include multi-client studies on China's timber supply deficit, the Global Tree Farm and Managed Forest Industry, and the International Pulpwood Resource and Trade Review.
Robert holds a BA in geography from the University of Texas, a BS in forest management from Northern Arizona University, and an MS in economics from the University of Oregon.

Paul Jannke
Senior Vice President, Wood & Timber Information
RISI

Paul Jannke specializes in the analysis and forecasting of the wood products industry. His specific area of expertise is the econometric modeling and forecasting of the North American lumber and panel markets.
Paul authors the quarterly North American Lumber Forecast and the monthly Lumber Commentary, which regularly update RISI's analysis and forecast for North American lumber markets. Paul has also co-authored many studies on the international lumber, timber, and panel industries.
Paul has presented at numerous international conferences on the markets for lumber, engineered wood products and structural panels and is recognized as a leading expert in these areas.
Paul has also taken on a senior management role at RISI. Since becoming Vice President of industry analysis and forecasting, he has broadened his responsibilities to include management of the timber, fiber (pulp), and Asian sectors.

Gregory Lewis
Director, Wood Products
RISI

Gregory Lewis is the director of wood products at RISI and has been with the company since 1999. He works with the Wood Products Service, and is responsible for the North American structural and non-structural panel forecasts. He has also done analyses of global wood products markets.
Greg holds a Master's degree in economics from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Bachelor's degree in economics from Oberlin College.

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.

Bernard Fuller
President, Cambridge Forest Products Associates
and Consultant to RISI

Bernard's specializations include the end-use markets for wood products (lumber and panels). He has authored many studies on the panelboard industry (with particular reference to softwood plywood, oriented strandboard, medium density fibreboard and particleboard) and on the markets for treated products. Over the past quarter century, Bernard has presented papers at professional, industry and association meetings in North and South America, Europe and Asia, and is recognized as a leading analyst in the economics of the wood products markets. He contributes regularly to RISI's monthly and quarterly forecasts for engineered wood products and is currently researching panel markets in China and South America.
Education:
BA in Economic and Social History, University of Nottingham, England
MA in U.S. Economic History, University of Wisconsin
Completed requirements for Ph.D., except dissertation, in U.S. Economic History, State University of New York at Binghamton

Jesse Neese
Product Manager, Wood Products Cost Benchmarking Group
RISI

Jesse Neese joined RISI's Cost Benchmarking Group in January of 2006. Jesse is responsible for the ongoing development of RISI's wood products cost benchmarking portfolio.
Prior to joining RISI, Jesse worked in the wood products adhesive industry for nine years and has significant experience in the production of hardwood and softwood plywood, oriented strand board, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), glued laminated timbers, wooden I-joists, particleboard and medium density fiberboard.
Jesse earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Louisiana Polytechnic University in 2000, a Master of Science degree in Wood Science from Oregon State University in 1997 and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University.

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).

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.

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.

Ken Waghorne
Vice President, Packaging Products
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. His contributions to the RISI multiclient studies include the detailed analysis of the international containerboard markets, sector-by-sector forecasts for the U.S. folding carton industry, and an analysis of the paper packaging markets for Latin America.
Ken holds a Master of Science degree in Forest Economics from Virginia Tech and his Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from LSU.

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.

John Stoffel
R&D Director,
Hewlett-Packard

Stoffel's career at HP began in 1983 with projects involving plasma enhanced vapor deposition of silicon carbide, silicon design, printhead construction, and ink formulation for PaintJet, HP’s first color ink jet device. Some highlights of his work from this time period include a design in the silicon layout to eliminate corrosion, a process to enable the use of uncured photopolymer for lamination, and work on the team that eliminated capped storage issues in the black ink.
After PaintJet was successfully introduced, Stoffel directed his efforts primarily to ink formulation, becoming a Senior Member of the Technical Staff in 1991, a Project Manager in 1993, and the Hewlett Packard Ink Jet Ink Technology Manager and Master in 1998. As a member of special product development teams at HP, he took part in the creation of the first color ink jet inks for HP printers; the first pigmented black ink jet inks, the black ink used in the HP 45 cartridge, and, the first six color set of ink jet photo inks.
John Stoffel holds over 25 patents relating to ink jet ink, media, and printhead design. In addition, he has authored articles published in the HP Journal , has delivered several lectures at imaging industry conferences, and has given numerous interviews to the newspaper, magazine, and television press.
In 1998, John Stoffel was promoted to Master Chemist and in 2005 he was promoted to Distinguished Technologist. His responsibilities included managing Hewlett Packard’s inkjet ink technology roadmap and investments. In 2005, John led the HP team that worked with International Paper to introduced ColorLok media across HP Everyday Paper. In April 2007, John moved to MSS to the position of Director of Research and Development.

Dirk Claessens
WW Industrial Products Industry Leader,
IBM Global Business Services

Dirk Claessens leads the IBM Global Business Services practice for the Industrial Products industries including metals, mining, forest products and manufacturing. He has been with IBM since 1994 and has worked since the beginning of his career on assignments with companies in these industries, delivering strategy work, process redesign and application implementation, and automation assignments. Recently he addressed conferences in U.S., Helsinki, Tokyo, India and Moscow on various industry-specific topics such as supply chain and IT. He is a Commercial Engineer by education and holds an MBA from the Catholic University of Antwerp. Dirk can be reached at dirk.a.claessens@be.ibm.com

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