TAPPI Announces New Directors and Officers of the Board

Newly elected Include Representatives from Domtar, Chevron Phillips, Sun Automation, GranBio and International Paper

TAPPI’s membership recently elected two new officers and four industry leaders to its Board of Directors.  Representing a broad swath of industry segments, TAPPI’s volunteer BOD has successfully guided the policies and general affairs of the Association throughout the course of its 108-year history. The Board consists of a Chair, Vice Chair, and nine Directors. Its past and present list of Directors spotlights a long line of industry icons.

Meet the newest Officers and Directors on the TAPPI Board.

Donald Haag (Retired), PCA, having formerly served as Vice Chair will now serve as Chair. 

Kim Nelson, CTO Nanocellulose with GranBio USA, having completed her term as a Director will now serve as Vice Chair.

James (Bill) Edwards, Senior Vice President, Pulp & Paper Operations with Domtar Corporation will serve as a director.   Edwards has over 30 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry, and he is responsible for all pulp and paper manufacturing, converting operations, and optimization efforts at Domtar’s mills and plants. His organization is also responsible for Domtar’s safety, quality, and continuous improvement, engineering, and innovation teams. Previously, he served as vice president of Paper manufacturing.

Kelly Frey, Technical Service - Extrusion Coating with Chevron Phillips Chemical Company will also serve as a director.  Kelly holds several patents related to extrusion coating and has presented technical papers at both SPE Antec and TAPPI’s PLACE conference.   Kelly has served on many teams within the TAPPI International Flexible Packaging & Extrusion Division, and was Division Chairman from 2018 to 2021. Kelly also enjoys teaching at the annual TAPPI Extrusion Coating Course. 

Greg Jones, Executive Vice President for SUN Automation Group will serve as a director. Greg has spent over 20 years in the manufacturing and packaging sector. In 2002, he began his tenure with ITW as the National Sales Manager for ITW Shippers Products. He later joined ITW Muller, and spent over ten years delivering equipment and material load containment solutions to clients across various sectors. Rigorously trained in the principles of 80/20, Product Line Simplification, Market Rate Demand, and the importance of cross-functional team approach, he applied these skills further for a quick rise in the corrugated industry.

Leslie Petrie is the Vice President of Global Environment, Health and Safety at International Paper. Under her leadership, this organization manages programs to eliminate injuries and fatalities and to ensure International Paper is a good steward to the environment. Petrie has worked for International Paper for over 30 years and has served in a variety of manufacturing, converting and leadership roles for the enterprise.  She currently leads the companies EHS council and is a member of the diversity and inclusion council. In 2018, she was awarded the NAM STEP Ahead award that recognizes women in science, technology, engineering and production for leadership within their companies. Leslie also serves as a board member on the UWSP Paper Science Foundation. 

Meet the Rest of the TAPPI Board Officers and Directors

• Larry N. Montague, President and CEO, TAPPI

• Larry Anker, Solenis, Director

• Karyn L. Biasca, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, Director

• Suzanne Blanchet, L.B. Inc., Director

• David Buchanan, Voith Group, North America, Director

• Michael Farrell, Graphic Packaging, Director

About TAPPI:

TAPPI is the leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging, tissue and converting industries and publisher of Paper360°, Tissue360° and TAPPI Journal. Through information exchange, events, trusted content and networking opportunities, TAPPI helps members elevate their performance by providing solutions that lead to better, faster and more cost-effective ways of doing business. It has provided management training and networking to the industry’s leaders for more than 100 years. For more information, visit TAPPI’s website.