HELSINKI, Finland, March 31 -- Stora Enso today announced that Stora Enso has reviewed its organisational structure as a number of key persons will reach retirement age in the next three years, starting with the forthcoming retirement of Deputy CEO Bjorn Hagglund on 1 June 2005.
The new organisation will focus on broadening the experience of a number of key managers, reducing the number of management levels within Stora Enso, expanding in emerging markets and developing global product divisions.
The new organisation structure will take effect from 1 May 2005.
Line organisation
The Asia Pacific and Latin America geographical divisions will report to Group staff Corporate Strategy in order to strengthen the efforts to grow in emerging markets, including Eastern Europe. In addition, the product divisions will become more involved in growth projects in these markets as a result of the organisational changes.
Stora Enso Publication Paper, Fine Paper and North America (SENA) will each report to the CEO. The work done by the Paper product area on identifying and achieving synergies within these divisions will continue and be extended to the relevant divisions or corporate staff functions such as Corporate Strategy and Market Services. This will ensure that some of the successful initiatives by the Paper product area are implemented throughout the Group. These initiatives have included Stora Enso Account Management, the Why Paper continuous study of paper demand factors and the maintenance strategy.
Speciality Paper will be transferred to Packaging Boards and Merchant operations will report to the Fine Paper division. The Merchant operations will remain independent from the Fine Paper division operations in order to preserve the required integrity towards suppliers and customers. For financial reporting purposes these changes will be effective from Q2 2005 onwards.
Staff functions
The number of staff functions, which will report to the CEO, will be reduced from eight to six, namely:
* Finance, Accounting, Legal and IR
* Corporate IT, HR and Business Excellence
* Market Services (Sales Network and Transport and Distribution)
* Corporate Communications
* Corporate Support (Environment, Energy, Procurement and R&D)
* Corporate Strategy, Investment and Business Planning
Appointments
Kai Korhonen, currently head of the Paper product area, has been appointed Senior Executive Vice President, Stora Enso Packaging Boards. He continues as a member of the Executive Management Group (EMG).
Pekka Laaksonen, currently head of the Packaging Boards product area, has been appointed Senior Executive Vice President, Stora Enso Fine Paper. He continues as a member of the EMG.
Jussi Huttunen, currently head of Stora Enso Fine Paper, has been appointed Senior Executive Vice President, Market Services. He continues as a member of the EMG.
Arno Pelkonen, currently head of Stora Enso Forest Products, has been appointed Senior Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Emerging Markets. He continues as a member of the EMG.
Elisabet Salander Bjorklund, currently head of Stora Enso Wood Supply Europe, has been appointed Senior Executive Vice President, Stora Enso Forest Products. She becomes a member of the EMG.
Christer Agren, currently head of Corporate Human Resources and TQM, has been appointed Senior Executive Vice President, IT, HR and Business Excellence. He becomes a member of the EMG.
Esko Makelainen, CFO and SEVP Finance, Accounting and Legal Affairs, Lars Bengtsson, SEVP, Stora Enso North America, Bernd Rettig, SEVP, Stora Enso Publication Paper and Yngve Stade, SEVP, Corporate Support, continue as members of the EMG.
Per Ericson, currently head of Human Resources in the Paper product area and head of Human Resources Development within Corporate Human Resources, has been appointed Executive Vice President, Corporate Human Resources and Business Excellence. He becomes a member of the Management Group (MG).
Petri Wager, currently head of Market Services, has been appointed head of Stora Enso Sales Finland and Baltic States as well as sales in Russia.