ATLANTA, April 16 -- Georgia-Pacific Corp. announced today that Kathleen Ann Walters, 53, will join the company as president - North American commercial business. She will report to Mike Burandt, executive vice president - North American consumer products. In this expanded leadership role, Walters will have complete responsibility for Georgia-Pacific's commercial tissue business throughout North America, including sales, marketing, customer service, business development and manufacturing. Walters most recently was president and chief executive officer of Sappi Fine Paper North America, a unit of Sappi Limited, the largest producer of coated fine paper in the world. Prior to joining Sappi in early 2002, Walters was president of Kimberly- Clark Corp.'s away-from-home business in Europe and vice president of the away-from-home business in North America. She joined Kimberly-Clark as part of its 1996 acquisition of Scott Paper Co., where Walters held a number of positions including vice president - tissue and skin care businesses, vice president - sales for Scott's health care business and director - USA tissue manufacturing planning. Walters holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Syracuse University, and a master's of business administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. At Georgia-Pacific, Walters will be based at the company's Atlanta headquarters. Reporting to her will be the sales, marketing, business development and related administrative groups based in Atlanta; the customer service group based in Green Bay, Wis.; and manufacturing mills including two based in Green Bay, and one each based in Muskogee, Okla., and Savannah, Ga. "Kathy brings tremendous leadership skills and outstanding experience in the away-from-home business to this critical position at Georgia-Pacific," Burandt said. "She has a proven track record of focusing on customer needs, listening to and leading employees, and driving outstanding results and sustainable growth for the business. Kathy has run a large company and will be a great addition to our executive leadership team."