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RISI announced that UPM President and Chief Executive Officer Jussi Pesonen has been selected as the first-ever European CEO of the Year for the forest products industry. Pesonen will be presented with the award at the 9th RISI European Pulp & Paper Outlook Conference in Barcelona, Spain to be held on March 25-27, 2007.
Pesonen was nominated European CEO of the Year in a survey, conducted by RISI, of investment analysts and portfolio managers covering the forest products industry. The criteria for nomination include leadership, vision and strategic accomplishment.
UPM is one of the world’s leading forest products groups. The company had sales of EUR 10 billion in 2006, and has about 28,000 employees. UPM has production facilities in 15 countries and an extensive sales and distribution network around the world.
Rhiannon James-van Beuningen, Vice President, Media Products, RISI, said the award recognizes Pesonen’s role in the ongoing transformation of UPM and the European forest products industry. She commented, "Under his leadership, UPM has come a long way. The clear measures taken under their new profitability program launched in 2006 have continued to make UPM a leader in the European marketplace."
The profitability program called for improved efficiencies throughout the entire Group over a three-year period to result in annual cost savings of approximately Euro 200 million. Since the announcement, UPM closed several production lines transferring capacity to more productive machines.
Simultaneously, UPM confirmed that it will continue investing in its most competitive units. The company also showed exceptional corporate social responsibility by introducing an extensive program to support retraining and relocation thus minimizing the impact of redundancy.
"He [Pesonen] has been the most proactive CEO in the current rationalization of capacity within the European paper industry. He has shown an ability to manage significant change within his company and improved profitability by reducing costs, something that all his peers should be trying to emulate," one analyst said. Another analyst commented, "Jussi lead the industry restructuring back in March executing the closures quicker than expected."
Jussi Pesonen has held the position of CEO since January 29, 2004. He joined the company in 1987 and occupied several posts including Production Manager at Jämsänkoski mill, Production Unit Director at Kajaani, Kaukas and Shotton mills and Vice President of Newsprint Product Group. He was the COO of the paper divisions 2001-2003. From the beginning of 2004, he worked as Senior Executive Vice President and deputy to the President and CEO.
Mr. Pesonen has considerable experience in the industry and is also a member of the board of the CEPIPRINT and Chairman of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. He has a Master of Science degree in engineering from the University of Oulu, Finland.
This year marks the inauguration of RISI’s European CEO of the Year Award.
An annual award has been presented since 1999 to a CEO of the Year in North America. Past recipients of the CEO of the Year award include John Faraci of International Paper (2006), A.D. ‘Pete’ Correll of Georgia-Pacific (2005), Paul Stecko of Packaging Corp. of America (2004), Raymond Royer of Domtar Inc.
(2003), Steve Rogel of Weyerhaeuser Co. (2002 and 2001), John Dillon of International Paper Co. (2000), and Michael Smurfit of Jefferson Smurfit Group (1999).
For more information on the RISI European Pulp & Paper Outlook Conference, visit www.risiinfo.com/euroconf.
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