The wood panel companies represented by the new executive board of the Composite Panel Association reads like a who's who in mega mergers and acquisitions of 2012.
The list starts with Bryan Wilson, sales and marketing manager of Temple-Inland, who assumed the role of CPA chairman effective Jan. 1. Temple-Inland's particleboard and MDF division was the subject of not one, but two buyouts last year. Temple-Inland's wood and packaging divisions were acquired by International Paper in February 2012. Last month, International Paper announced it would sell Temple-Inland's 16 wood and wood composite panel operations to Georgia-Pacific Corp. for $750 million.
Wilson succeeds James Hogg, CEO and president of Uniboard Canada, who is serving as immediate past chairman of the CPA Board of Directors. Uniboard Canada was also the subject of a blockbuster buy-out last year. Pfleiderer, parent company of Uniboard Canada, sold the Laval, QC-based panel maker to Kaycan in the fall.
Next up is Kelly Shotbolt, president and CEO of Flakeboard, who is now serving as vice president of the CPA Board. Flakeboard sold its particleboard, MDF and thermally fused laminate facilities in the U.S. and Canada to Arauco for $242.5 million last year. In an earlier separate transaction, Arauco bought Uniboard's MDF and thermally fused laminate operations in Moncure, NC, from Germany-based Pfleiderer.
Rounding out the CPA's executive board is Grady Mulberry, vice president of manufacturing for Roseburg Forest Products. Roseburg is the only company represented on the executive board that did not change owners last year. The company did, however, acquire Flakeboard's particleboard plant in Simsboro, LA, in late 2011.
While the complexion of the 2013 CPA executive board reflects the seismic shift in ownership of the wood composite panel industry's top players, it also points to the high regard the new owners have in retaining leaders such as Wilson, Hogg and Shotbolt to play key leadership roles in the future success of their new assets.
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