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Travels with Larry Archive

PaperCon Management Program Focuses on Industry's Most Pressing Concerns

The management program at TAPPI's PaperCon 2012 event, April 22 - 25, in New Orleans, La., USA, is focused directly on the industry's most pressing concerns from the boardroom table to the mill operating floor. Bringing together top leaders in a series of roundtables and panel sessions, this year's program, organized by TAPPI's PIMA Division, explores on-going operations management strategies, future product development, new approaches for "growing people," safety challenges, and procurement and sourcing. It also includes PIMA's annual mill manager and superintendent's roundtables and the State of the Industry report on Wednesday.

The Executive Panel Discussion on Monday, following the opening session and keynote address, features James Rubright, chairman and CEO of RockTenn, Dan Cappell, president and CEO of AstenJohnson, and Jean Moreau, president and CEO of Celluforce. These leaders will share their insights and perspectives on trends and drivers shaping today's paper industry world-wide, and look ahead at emerging market developments and challenges the global industry faces through the end of this decade.

Since Rubright became CEO in 1999, RockTenn has undergone a transformation making it the most profitable company in the industry as measured by return on sales. In 2011, RockTenn acquired Smurfit-Stone Container, the second largest producer of containerboard and corrugated packaging in North America. The acquisition tripled RockTenn's size to approximately $10 billion in revenues.

A 30-year veteran of the pulp and paper industry, Cappell joined Asten Inc. in 1984. In October 1997, he was promoted to COO and was a principle in the planning and execution of the merger between Asten and JWI in late 1999. In May 2005, Cappell was named president and COO of AstenJohnson. In October 2006, he was appointed president and CEO of the company.

Moreau brings a wealth of experience in finance, operations, and business development which he acquired in both private and public corporations, in various fields including manufacturing, entertainment, distribution, and consumer goods. In February 2011, he was appointed president and CEO of CelluForce, a global leader in the commercial development of NanoCrystalline Cellulose (NCC).

The Future Products for the Pulp and Paper Industry session immediately after lunch on Monday afternoon features Dan Burciaga, president and CEO of ThermoChem Recovery International, Dr. Michael Lake, co-founder of Liquid Lignin Co., and Harry Cullinan, director of technology deployment at the Alabama Center for Pulp and Bioresource Engineering at Auburn University. The session analyzes how the industry can improve its revenue generating production by adding value to mill streams that have traditionally been waste streams or low value streams. These future products are within the grasp of commercialization and include diesel or jet fuels and value added products from forest residues and bark, value added chemicals from the cellulosic portions of mill sludge, and the separation of lignin from black liquor to reduce load on recovery limited mills and to produce value added chemicals from the lignin.

The Procurement and Sourcing Forum in the second half of Monday afternoon is designed specifically for sourcing and procurement professionals, The two sessions will address best practices in the procurement of materials and services in the manufacturer of paper and packaging materials.

On Tuesday morning, Selina Hall, process engineer at Domtar in Kingsport, Tenn., Vince Somody, paper machine E&I supervisor at Domtar in Hawesville, Ky., and Matthew Kanneburg, RockTenn Containerboard Division safety manager, conduct a special safety session titled "It's Never Too Early—or—Too Late to Become a Safety Leader." Organized by the Pulp and Paper Safety Association (PPSA), the session explores challenges "new" leaders have in trying to engage employees to work as a team towards injury free.

The Growing Your People session leading up to lunch on Tuesday morning is being chaired by Keith Kemp, of AstenJohnson. It looks at how high levels of retirement have created two significant challenges in the workforce—skills gaps and engagement issues, and that the best performing operations address both. In this session, leaders from best in class companies including paper mills, present experiences and challenges.

The Superintendent's and Papermaker's Roundtables on Tuesday afternoon and the Mill Manager's Roundtable on Wednesday will be examined in next week's edition of Over the Wire, along with the State of the Industry report by Peter Franadina of Accenture and Jimmy Lu of PacificNet Holding.

More details about the PaperCon 2012 program, exhibition, workshops, and seminars, including the OpEx (Operating Excellence) Seminar, special events, and registration are available online, along with information about travel and accommodations.