By Mark Rushton, Editor, PPI magazine, Graeme Rodden, Executive Editor, PPI magazine, Annie Zhu, Features Editor, PPI magazine, and Rhiannon James-Van Beuningen, Senior Vice President, Media Products, RISI
BRUSSELS,
July 29, 2009
(RISI) -
31. Mark Wilde, Deutsche Bank
Mark Wilde is the senior analyst at Deutsche Bank and covers the paper and forest products sector. He is continuously recognized as one of the sector's best stock pickers. Mark is no stranger to rankings and he appears regularly on investment and financial website listings as a top ranked analyst for the forest products industry. He is also a member of Institutional Investor's All-America Research Team and has been ranked Number 2 in the Greenwich Survey for paper and packaging.
32. Alain Lemaire, Cascades
While most of the Canadian pulp and paper industry has gone south on the express bus, under the guidance of president and CEO Alain Lemaire, Cascades keeps rolling along in the opposite direction. Despite an economy in crisis, Cascades had it best two months of sales in history in early 2009. Although Q1 2009 was one of, if not the, worst quarters on record for the Canadian industry, Cascades showed positive results. It was also chosen as one of Canada's "greenest " employers in 2008. Its most recent move was the $60-million acquisition of Atlantic Packaging Products' tissue assets that include 50,000 tonnes/yr of production capacity and 70,000 tonnes/yr of converting capacity. Cascades is also among the leaders in developing and introducing innovative packaging and paper products.
33. Nikolas Talonpoika, Gucci
Nikolas Talonpoika, worldwide media director for the Gucci brand, is a very important player in the magazine advertising world with a budget of around $350 million. It also owns well known brands Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Venata, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. But more importantly than the budget or the brands is the fact that Talonpoika is a keen exponent of print and paper, he said recently at a conference for magazine publishers in London: "Around 95% of our spend is in the luxury magazine sector, and I think we might even see a decrease in spend in the online sector this year". Clearly, Talonpoika is a welcome player who believes firmly that print and paper is the very best way to advertise luxury products to its customers.
34. Gary McGann, Smurfit Kappa
The group CEO of the Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG), Gary McGann has held this office since 2002. Previously, he was president and COO of the company, after joining in 1998 as CFO. Busy in the business world, in addition to his duties at SKG, McGann is the chairman of Dublin Airport Authority and Aon Ireland and is a director of Anglo Irish Bank Corporation and United Drug. In 2008, SKG created Protektapak, a corrugated mail order pack for wine bottles.
35. Anthony Pratt, Pratt Industries
Another company bucking popular trends, Pratt Industries has just started up a greenfield recycled containerboard mill in Shreveport, LA. Pratt is now America's sixth largest paper and packaging company, with more than 3,500 employees. Pratt Industries was founded in the US some 20 years ago and it now has three large recycled containerboard mills with Shreveport joining the company's mills in Conyers, GA, and Staten Island, NY. Most of the US operation's 1.1 million tons/yr of recycled containerboard capacity is converted through its own corrugated plants.
In 2007, Anthony Pratt's commitment to recycling, including pledging US$1 billion to paper recycling and waste-to-energy infrastructure back in September, has won him a gong from Global Green USA, an affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev's Green Cross International.
Richard Pratt, Anthony Pratt's father, who built Visy and Pratt Industries into one of the world's largest privately-owned paperboard packaging and recycling companies, died on April 27 this year at the age of 74.
36. Paul Stecko, PCA
The CEO of Packaging Corporation of American runs one of the best performing companies in the containerboard sector. In the 2009 paper and packaging survey conducted by Deutsche Bank, it was chosen as the most highly regarded company among its peers. Asked which is the best managed company in their market, respondents gave PCA twice as many votes as any other company. PCA was formed in 1999 when Madison Dearborn Partners purchased the containerboard and corrugated packaging business of Tenneco Packaging. Stecko has been CEO since January 1999 and assumed the presidency in March 1999. PCA has four integrated mills with total capacity of 2.45 million tonnes/yr. Its margins are consistently the highest in the containerboard/box sector.
37 A. Mark Gardner, Sappi Fine Paper North America
It should come as no surprise that Mark Gardner received PIMA's 2009 Executive of the Year Award at the recent PaperCon conference. Named president and CEO in 2008 after a long career with the company, under Gardner's leadership, Sappi Fine Paper North America had its most profitable year in 2008, achieved the best safety record in the company history and set several production records. In a recent profile in the alumni magazine published by his alma mater, University of Southern Maine, Andy Anderson, associate dean and professor in the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology, said that Gardner has always been a "pretty forward thinking guy. Very early on he was trying to improve quality in the papermaking process." Beyond the technical side, under Gardner's leadership, Sappi has shown continuing support for Living Lands and Waters, a non-profit, environmental organization, focused on the protection, preservation and restoration of America's major rivers and their watersheds. Also, Sappi is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Ideas that Matter program, a grant program that supports and transforms the "creative ideas of designers into a powerful source for good." Finally, Sappi is studying an option to build a new paper machine at its Pomquet, MN, mill that would increase coated paper production there more than threefold to more than one million tonnes/yr.
37 B. Berry Wiersum, Sappi Fine Paper Europe
We are adding another Sappi CEO to our Power List, Berry Wiersum, CEO of Sappi Fine Paper Europe, who is on the 2009 list for a variety of reasons, but mainly for its acquisition of M-real's fine paper division in recent times which was seen by many industry pundits as a very good move for both parties concerned. Another reason Wiersum is on the list is that he presides over a remarkable R&D unit at Sappi which prides itself on creating new products that have the printer at heart. One of its latest products, Tempo, has printers shouting from the rooftops about it from all over Europe as it has transformed drying times in printing from hours down to mere minutes.
38. Harris E. DeLoach, Jr., Sonoco
A veteran of the company for more than 20 years, DeLoach has served as president and CEO since 2002, assuming the chairmanship as well in 2005. Although earnings were lower in Q1 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, the strategy to change the mix of Sonoco's businesses to take advantage of faster growing and less volatile consumer markets while reducing the cyclicality of the more mature industrial businesses continues to show positive results for the company. Sonoco is now a $4.1 billion/yr firm with 300 manufacturing facilities in 35 countries. It is the world's largest producer of cores and tubes but is much more than that. It is well positioned for changes in the North American industry as it relates to being able not to just make paper but other products such as cans and plastics for big consumer companies. It is also showing leadership in the energy field. Peregrine Energy will build a $135-million wood biomass fuelled cogeneration plant at Sonoco's Hartsville, SC, mill complex, replacing coal-fired boilers. Peregrine will own and operate the plant and sell low-pressure steam to Sonoco.
39. Peter Ruschmeier, Barclays Capital
A staple at the annual PaperCon meetings, the highly-respected Ruschmeier always attracts a large audience at the session where he speaks for his clear and concise views of the financial/business state of the industry, something the mostly technically-oriented delegates do not hear often. Formerly with Lehman Brothers before it was absorbed by Barclays, Ruschmeier is a regular pick for the Institutional Investors All-America Research Team. His experience with the industry makes Ruschmeier a leading choice when it comes to seeking advice on the industry.
40. Jimmy S.H. Lee, Mercer
Although only 52 years old, Jimmy S.H. Lee has been chairman of the board, CEO and president of Mercer International since 1992. During Lee's tenure with Mercer, the company acquired the Rosenthal mill and converted it to the production of kraft pulp, the first in Germany. Under his watch, Mercer also constructed and commenced operations of the Stendal (Germany)mill at an old nuclear power plant site and acquired the company's Celgar, BC, mill.
RISI Power List 2009: Introduction
RISI Power List 2009: 1-10
RISI Power List 2009: 11-20
RISI Power List 2009: 21-30
RISI Power List 2009: 41-50
