ASPI Award Winners Announced

ASPI offers two awards each year: ASPI Customer Executive of the Year, and the ASPI Excellence in Leadership Award. These awards not only provide recognition for the recipient, they also promote ASPI’s mission of supporting industry performance.

Both of this year’s recipients (featured here) accepted their awards at the association’s spring meeting held in Sarasota, FL, in February, and shared their insights into business success with attendees.

2017 Customer
Executive of the Year:

Michael P. Doss
President and CEO, Graphic Packaging Holding Company

This award is the highest honor ASPI can bestow on an individual. It is granted to a paper industry executive who has demonstrated extraordinary effectiveness in working with a range of suppliers to enhance productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of his or her company.

Before assuming his current post in January, 2016, Doss held the position of president and COO; prior to that he had served as COO since January, 2014. Since joining Graphic Packaging International Corporation in 1990, Doss has held positions of increasing management responsibility, including plant manager at the Gordonsville, TN, and Wausau, WI, plants.

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, headquartered in Atlanta, is a leading provider of packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage, and other consumer products companies. The company is one of the largest producers of folding cartons and holds a leading market position in coated-unbleached kraft, coated-recycled boxboard and specialty packaging. (Visit www.graphicpkg.com.)

2017 Excellence in
Leadership Award:

Jack Bray
Vice President, manufacturing operations, Domtar Corporation

Established in 2010, The ASPI Excellence in Leadership Award honors senior level managers within the paper industry for unique and creative leadership of their employees and key suppliers during major projects.

Bray has been the vice president, manufacturing operations, at Domtar since 2015. Prior to his current position, he served as vice president, manufacturing – Region 2 from 2011 to 2015.  He was also the vice president/mill manager for Domtar in Hawesville, KY, from 2007 to 2011. Bray holds a B.S. in Paper Science/Engineering from Western Michigan University.

Domtar is a leading provider of a wide variety of fiber-based products, including communication, specialty and packaging papers, market pulp, and absorbent hygiene products. With approximately 10,000 employees serving more than 50 countries around the world, Domtar’s annual sales are approximately US$5.3 billion. (Visit www.domtar.com.)

Award Nominations Now Open for 2018

Do you have a pulp, paper, or packaging company customer that has done amazing things? Let them know! Support their success by nominating them for an ASPI Award. Nominations are now open for the 2018 Awards. Only ASPI members may make nominations. Find entry forms for both awards on the ASPI website: www.aspinet.org. Submit completed forms to Grayson Lutz at [email protected] no later than June 1, 2017. Sonoco Will
Host Customer
Alignment Meeting

ASPI holds two meetings a year with informative programming designed to help ASPI members and their customers improve industry performance. The capstone is each fall’s Customer Alignment meeting, which gives attendees a stellar opportunity to engage with a major customer in a meaningful, impactful way.

The next Customer Alignment meeting will be hosted by Sonoco, a US$5 billion global provider of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective solutions, and display and packaging services. It is scheduled for September 27-29 at the Hilton Atlanta NE in Myrtle Beach, SC. Only members may attend the ASPI Fall Meeting. To learn more about joining ASPI, visit www.aspinet.org.  

In Memorium:
Jan-Eric Bergstedt

ASPI regrets to inform its membership of the recent passing of Jan-Eric Bergstedt. He was a great advocate for ASPI (and its precursor organizations, APMA and PPMMA) and had been a member for decades. He strongly believed in the spirit of the networking and collaboration opportunities ASPI provides for its membership.

Bergstedt was born in Pitea, Sweden, graduated from Skelleftea Technical College, and had a long and storied career in the pulp and paper industry beginning in 1956. He began as an assistant pulp mill superintendent for Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) in Munksund, Sweden. In 1962 he joined Defibrator AB as a field engineer, and in 1965 he and his family moved to the US. He served as president of American Defibrator’s US and Canadian operation and later as president of Andritz Sprout Bauer. In 1994 he became president of Kadant AES and held that position until 2002.

Bergstedt served his local community and his industry on various TAPPI boards. He was an avid sailor, map reader, and traveler. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Viviann, and many other family members and associates who remember him fondly.