GLENMONT, NY -- Sydney T. Jones III, Chairman of the Board and Treasurer of Hudson Valley Paper Company, has announced that his daughter, Samantha T. Jones, has been named president of the company. The announcement was made after the company's board meeting on April 21, 2009. In assuming this role, Samantha Jones is the fifth generation of the Jones family to lead the independent printing paper merchant, succeeding her father, as planned, when he reached the age of 65.

Jones joined the company in January 2006, after being successfully recruited from her corporate management position at IBM. According to Sydney T. (Tucker) Jones, "Samantha is the catalyst for Hudson Valley Paper Company in the twenty-first century. She has and will give her finest personal and professional talents to the continued growth of our company. Under her direction, we will generate an environment which embraces new ideas and thinking without losing the traditions of our business that have made us so valuable to our colleagues and customers. Samantha has already made a difference here."

Founded in 1875, Hudson Valley Paper Company is believed to be the oldest paper merchant still owned by the same family. Andrew B. Jones was the first generation of the Jones family to be the owner of the company. The second generation of the Jones family included Sydney T. Jones, Sr., who was named the next president of the company. Throughout the generations, women and men of the Jones family have been involved in the company. Sydney T.Jones, Jr. became the company's third generation Jones family president. The tradition continued into the fourth generation when Sydney T. Jones, III was named president. Even though women in the Jones family have served as shareholders in the company, Samantha Jones is the first woman to be the executive leader.

Samantha Jones began her career at Hudson Valley Paper Company in February of 2006, as manager of government sales and of Comtex Technology Products, a division of the paper company focused on data center, as well as office and printing supplies. She was promoted to vice president of operations in 2007, responsible for managing warehousing, logistics and inventory management and purchasing.

Her professional career began with Sibson & Company in New York, where she was a consultant, diagnosing business problems and recomending solutions to their clients. After working in management roles in two internet startups in Washington, DC, and subsequently earning her MBA, Jones moved to International Business Machines, Inc. in 2003, becoming a senior marketing manager for the company's global "On Demand Business." She was nominated into the company's Executive Resource talent pool after two years with the company. In 2005, after hearing her father accept an award at a national paper and packaging industry trade association event, Samantha Jones decided to join the management team at Hudson Valley Paper Company. "I realized I had a rare and unique opportunity to work alongside my father that I'd regret passing up," she said.

Born and raised in the Capital District of New York where she attended Emma Willard School, Jones earned her MBA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA degree from Williams College. She is a recipient of the 2008 Albany Business Review's "Women to Watch" Award as part of their Women Who Mean Business program, a 2006 Leadership Tech Valley Graduate, and is a board member of Hudson Valley Paper Company and Capital Repertory Theatre.