July 2008
By Mark Rushton, Editor, PPI magazine, Graeme Rodden, Editor, Pulp & Paper magazine, Annie Zhu, Features Editor, PPI magazine, Felicia Willis, Associate Editor, Pulp & Paper magazine and Rhiannon James-Van Beuningen, Senior Vice President, Media Products, RISI
21. Steve Rogel, Weyerhaeuser
Steven R. Rogel was elected chairman, president and CEO of Weyerhaeuser on April 20, 1999.
In 1966, he began his career with St Regis Paper, where he worked until 1970. From 1970 to 1972, he was assistant manager at St. Anne-Nackawic Pulp and Paper in Nackawic, Canada. He joined Willamette in 1972 as technical director at the company’s operations in Albany, US. He was named president and chief executive officer of Willamette in 1995, and served in that position until joining Weyerhaeuser in December 1997.
He serves on various boards, including the American Forest & Paper Association and the World Forestry Center. He is a director of the Kroger, Union Pacific, Vice President of Administration for the Western Region Boy Scouts of America and co-chairman of the Wood Promotion Network.
22. Wolfgang Leitner, Andritz
Andritz has seen phenomenal growth in a short period of time at the suppliers end of pulp and paper. As CFO since 1987, and president and CEO of Andritz since 1994, Wolfgang Leitner has been key in strategizing the group’s growth from a manufacturing licensee and supplier of small proprietary products to a global leader in technology and services for the pulp and paper industry. The company also has major interests in other fast growing industrial branches such as hydropower, steel, solid/liquid separation, and biomass processing. A relatively short time ago, and with the strategic goal of becoming a full-line technology supplier and service partner to the pulp and paper industry, Andritz launched several innovative products as well as beginning to acquire complementary companies. The first was Sprout-Bauer in 1990. Other well-known names followed – Durametal, Kone Wood, Kvaerner Hymac, Ahlstrom Machinery, Lamb, ABB Drying, Fiedler, Küsters, Pilão, and others. Most recently, Andritz acquired a 50% stake in Sindus Human Technology of Brazil (now called Sindus Andritz), a supplier of outsourced maintenance services for automation systems, instrumentation, and electronics. As a result, the Andritz Group’s sales during the last 10 years have grown by over 19% per year (12% organically and the remainder from acquisitions). The pulp & paper business area today constitutes approximately 45% of the group’s total sales.
23. Gunilla Saltin, Södra Cell
Gunilla Saltin, is the incoming CEO of Södra Cell, large market pulp manufacturer. But don’t let the fresh face and disarming smile fool you, this lady is from the sharp end of the pulp business, and she is quite capable of rolling up her sleeves, and running a pulp mill of her own – she was mill manager at Södra Cell’s Värö mill in her last job. Saltin declares that she has a “natural love of all things technical” and has already stamped her authority on the industry by announcing that the Värö mill will be 100% fossil fuel free by 2011 and makes no secret of the fact that energy generation is high on the list of future priorities. Saltin says Södra Cell’s policy for the future is simple, “minimize energy consumption and maximize production, make the mill as energy efficient as possible, then sell the surplus through as many profitable means as possible”. Södra Cell makes 2.1 million tonnes/yr of market pulp and turns over SEK 9.4 billion ($1.5 billion).
24. Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President
It has taken a while for Russia to begin emerging, and it has probably been the slowest of the so- called BRIC countries to get its act together. But emerging it is, especially in pulp and paper. It is the one country repeatedly mentioned by all serious pulp and paper companies looking for further regions to invest in. Dmitry Medvedev appears on our list for two good reasons; one because he is head of the nation that controls 20 % of the world’s total forested area; and two because of his own association with pulp and paper. In his previous career, Medvedev spent six years as the general counsel for Russia’s largest pulp company Ilim Pulp, and will be well aware that pulp is a much more valuable commodity than raw timber. He has already been heard to state that “Russia can become a great agricultural power” and is clearly a man for all pulp and paper people to keep a close eye on. It almost goes without saying that he is likely instrumental in the recent decision to levy heavy taxes on raw timber being exported from the county. The export tariff on roundwood softwood, both saw logs and pulpwood, is scheduled to rise to a minimum of fifty Euros per cubic meter in January 2009, and the export tariff on large diameter hardwood is expected to rise to the same level at that time.
25. Bertel Langenskiöld, Metso
The world of suppliers to the paper industry has shrunk dramatically over the last decade, as consolidation on a large scale has taken place. Bertel Langenskiöld is head of one of the most prominent suppliers to pulp and paper, Metso. Having over 30 years of process engineering experience with some of the leading organizations globally, Langenskiöld’s responsibilities have covered virtually all facets of the industry, from mechanical engineering, marketing, corporate planning to heading the operations at many organizations.
Langenskiöld is a member of the board of directors of Wärtsila Corporation and Luvata International. He also acts as chairman of the Working Group for International Trade of the Technology Industries of Finland. In 2006 he left the position of CEO and president of Metso Minerals to become President of Metso Paper’s Fiber business line, heading the integration of Aker Kvaerner’s pulping and power business into Metso. Since April 2007, he has been the president of Metso Paper.
26. Hans-Peter Sollinger, Voith Paper
Hans-Peter Sollinger is president of Voith Paper, a group division of Voith AG and another one of the of the leading partners to the paper industry. He is also on the board of Voith AG. Sollinger studied mechanical engineering at Stuttgart University in a graduate engineering degree. His career at Voith began in 1982 as an engineer in the paper coating machinery division of JM Voith GmbH. In 1989 he was appointed business head for paper machines, sales and design. In 1994, he assumed the position of Executive Vice President for the Graphic Paper Division of Voith Sulzer. In 2000 he took over the responsibility for the system-business of Voith Paper and in 2005 he became president of Voith Paper.
Under Sollinger’s leadership, Voith Paper has shown enormous growth. In fiscal 2006/2007, orders reached an all-time high of more than Euro 2 billion ($3.1 billion). Thanks to a number of significant orders, Voith has been able to solidify its position in the paper market. Over a third of the paper produced worldwide is made on Voith Paper machines.
27. Teresa Presas, CEPI
Managing director, Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) and president, International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA), Teresa Presas is one of those people who when she walks into a room, you can feel her presence. Not just because she is always immaculately dressed and turns heads, but because she exerts an air of confidence and competence that commands people’s respect and attention. Since taking over the reins at CEPI in 2003, Presas has taken her experience from the business side of the pulp and paper industry and applied it effectively to the lobbying and political arena, building widespread support across the industry. She’s been influential in setting out a clear mission for CEPI and its umbrella associations and has pushed hard to communicate the industry’s message to the decision makers both within the European and the global political arena. Under her guidance the team at CEPI has grown in professionalism and competence and is enthusiastic and fired-up at promoting the paper industry. She entered the paper industry in 1982 as director of Communication and Marketing Services for Tetra Pak Portugal. She later went on to become director of Communication and Environment for Tetra Pak Europe and then, vice president of European Affairs for Tetra Pak Europe and Africa and director of Corporate Environmental Affairs for Tetra Pak International. As if running the major papermaking association in Europe were not enough work, Presas was also elected president of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) in 2006, a three year term which will come to an end in 2009.
28. Fabio Perini, Futura
Fabio Perini has been extremely important in shaping paper converting over the last 50 years. He sold his flagship company Fabio Perini SpA to Germany’s Körber Group and later left the tissue machinery business altogether in the 1990s. However, he renewed contact with former colleagues Luigi Viani, Giulio Betti and Alberto Bianchini, who had set up Futura with the aim of contract manufacturing machines and components in January 2002. Perini ordered a complete new line of his own design, from Futura. Based on the encouraging results of this innovative line, Perini agreed to become a partner in the new venture, which has now supplied 30 complete new lines in up to 50 major projects and has some 70% of business among the big companies. He had in mind some important innovations that would have created a tissue converting machine of a radically different nature; a machine capable of saving on paper trim, cutting neater rolls and binding the plies together with invisible embossing.
29. Sverker Martin Lof, SCA
Sverker Martin Lof is chairman of SCA and was instrumental in changing the company’s focus from traditional paper production to more lucrative consumer products. He is also responsible for SCA’s dramatic international expansion program which now sees it as a truly global corporation with around 50,000 employees, sales in 90 countries, production facilities in 40 countries. Leading products within SCA’s hygiene areas, such as the incontinence protection TENA, and Tork, Zewa, Tempo, Libero, Saba and Diapers. Corporate Headquarters are located in Stockholm, Sweden, and total sales are approximately Euro 11.5 billion ($17.8 billion).
SCA has recently announced plans to divest of its loss making conventional corrugated business in the UK and Ireland with an aim to focus on value added packaging.
30. Jyrki Maki-Kala, Kemira
Increasingly, the pulp and paper industry is relying on its suppliers and more than ever, the chemical companies are playing a much more influential role in the production process as mills try to add as much filler as possible to reduce the amount of expensive virgin fiber in the furnish. Also, for DIP producers, quality of the recovered fiber is an important issue as demand is reaching new heights and poorer quality becomes the norm. Maki-Kala was appointed president of Kemira Pulp & Paper in 2008 and has been a key figure in changing the company into a more focused, customer-oriented concern. With a wealth of experience in the chemical industry as it relates to pulp and paper, Maki-Kala has been instrumental in creating a strategy that focuses on overall solutions to the various papermaking sectors.

RISI Power List - Top 31 through 40
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