BOSTON, Oct. 17 -- Paperloop today announced that Georgia-Pacific's chairman and chief executive officer, A.D. "Pete" Correll has been selected as the 2005 CEO of the Year. Correll will be presented with the award on October 17 via satellite at the 20th RISI North American Forest Products Conference at San Diego, Calif. Correll was nominated CEO of the Year in an annual Paperloop survey of investment analysts and portfolio managers that includes such criteria as leadership, vision and strategic accomplishment. Will Mies, Paperloop Editorial Director-News Services, said the award recognizes Correll's role in the major transformation of Georgia-Pacific over the past five years. "Under his watch, Georgia-Pacific changed from a cyclical forest products producer into a more consumer-oriented company, which obtains half of its profits from tissue manufacturing, with an increasing focus on selling products -- whether tissue, building materials, or office papers-through mass retail channels," said Mies. The key to the transformation was Georgia-Pacific's acquisition of Fort James Corp. in 2000, which significantly expanded the company's existing tissue business and vaulted it into the ranks of the world's top tissue producers. This was followed by the spin-off of the company's 4.7 million acres in timberlands, a half dozen major pulp and paper mills, and two major distribution businesses. No wonder Correll likes to say the company is "no longer your father's Georgia-Pacific." Analysts praised Correll's vision in moving the company away from cyclical and declining commodity pulp and paper markets into the more stable and higher margin tissue business as well as his determination in reducing debt despite difficult market conditions in the years following the Fort James acquisition. Correll has worked 40 years in the paper and forest products industry. He has been chairman and chief executive officer of Georgia-Pacific since 1993. He joined the company in 1988 as a senior vice president for pulp and paper and was elected president and chief operating officer in 1991. Prior to joining Georgia-Pacific, Correll had held management positions at Mead, Westvaco and Weyerhaeuser. A native of Brunswick, Ga., Correll holds a bachelor degree in business administration from The University of Georgia and master's degrees in pulp and paper technology, and chemical engineering from University of Maine. Correll serves as an outside director for such corporations as Norfolk Southern Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. and serves on board of various nonprofit organizations including The Nature Conservancy, Institute of Paper Science and Technology, the Business Council, Grocery Manufacturers of America, The Carter Center, and The University of Georgia Foundation. Past recipients of the Paperloop CEO of the Year award include Paul Stecko of Packaging Corp. of America (2004), Raymond Royer of Domtar Inc. (2003), Steve Rogel of Weyerhaeuser Co. (2002 and 2001), John Dillon of International Paper Co. (2000), and Michael Smurfit of Jefferson Smurfit Group (1999). For more information on the RISI North American Forest Products Conference, visit http://www.paperloop.com/risi_na.