Top 50 paper people, but where's our Tom? asks Andy McCourt

There are some decidedly odd inclusions in the latest list of the top 50 people who influence the paper industry around the world.  The good, the bad and the ugly all get a look in but there's no sign of Tom Park, CEO of PaperlinX, the world's largest paper merchant. What's going on?

Tough guy, Teguh Ganda Wijaya, CEO of Asia Pulp & Paper takes out top spot as the world's most powerful paper baron, according to the annual RISI survey.

In fact, five of the top ten in the powerful paper people list are from Asia. Paper tigers? Hardly, given their reach, and top-of-the-pile APP's Teguh Ganda Wijaya has certainly been surrounded by controversy over the past few years. APP is owned by Sinar Mas – a company heavily criticized for leveling the rainforests of Sumatra so they can plant palm oil trees, destroying wildlife habitats, villages and entire eco-systems along the way. Other parts of Indonesia and elsewhere have been similarly ravaged. The ABC Four Corners programme investigated this in 2001

Five years ago, APP products were boycotted in the UK and Australia following concerted protests from groups such as Friends of the Earth.

But, along with April paper whose chief AJ Devanesan appears at number 8, APP appears to have changed its tune, and maybe its practices, and is shifting to managed plantation timber for its pulp feedstock, particularly in China.

Many other big names in pulp and paper make the list; from Stora Enso, Metso, International Paper, UPM, Bowater, Domtar etc. But where is the world's largest paper merchant? You know, the one that shipped over 4.5 million tones of paper last year for a sales turnover of $7.8 billion? The one that operates in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania? The one known here in Australia and New Zealand by its Dalton, Spicers and Winpac divisions?

The one with fantastic environmental credentials including the world's first carbon-neutral paper, ENVI, certified under ISO 14001 by the Australian Department of Climate Change?

PaperlinX. The greatest success story in paper merchanting this century and headed by managing director and CEO Tom Park – and his team of course. Now we know that some of our American friends think Australia is a small country bordered by Germany, Switzerland and Italy, where they ski like demons and drink schnapps, but just because PaperlinX in fact hails from a country that is the last stop before Antarctica where there are no trees, does not justify its being ignored.

The good folks at RISI acknowledge that: "Our aim is to give recognition not just to the CEOs and company leaders, but also to people in all areas of the business who have a significant impact on shaping the global pulp and paper industry today," says Rhiannon James-van Beuningen, Senior Vice President, Media Products, RISI.

"We recognize that with any listing of this kind there are no doubt people that we've forgotten or people that you think should or should not be included. Our aim with the Power List is to open a dialog with our readers and to find out what you think of the people we've picked. Yes, some of them are controversial."

So we can look forward to a revision maybe in next year's Paper Power top 50 list. 

But in this list it is imaginative and refreshing to see author JK Rowling in there at number 47 – a worthy acknowledgement of the power of content-creators in promulgating paper-based information as a fine pathway to learning, knowledge, pleasure and entertainment.

A bouquet of roses too for getting Mikael Nillson, print buyer at IKEA in there at number 50:- anyone who buys 150,000 tonnes on paper a year and orders 191 million catalogues in 27 languages is a print and paper hero in my book.

Further up the list at number 9, Heiko Leideker, creator of the FSC certification programme that is doing so much to show how carbon-neutral our industry is, is another apposite inclusion. As are two other NGO chiefs, Richard Brooks of Greenpeace (#14) and Ben Gunnenberg of PEFC (#33) – an alternative certification system to FSC.

Even a politician; the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev is there at number 24. He presides over a country with 20% of the world's forestry reserves and has a past career in pulp and paper with Russia's largest pulp concern. He would be well aware of the illegal logging going on in the beautiful Taiga region of Siberia and Russia's Far East and appears determined to stop it by imposing tariffs on roundwood exports so Russia's pulp industry can be managed and developed to return dividends to his nation for this otherwise exploited precious resource

In the meantime, here is Print21's own one-person 'most influential in the pulp and paper industry' listing - Tom Park, CEO of PaperlinX!

Where's Tom? Right here!

For a look at the complete list go to: www.risiinfo.com/powerlist

PS: How about suggestions for a 'top 50 influential people' list in the Australia-New Zealand Pulp, Paper and Printing Industries combined? Send your nominations, and why, to editor@print21.com.au.au