MEMPHIS, Tenn. - International Paper today announced that it has been named by FORTUNE magazine once again as one of "America's Most Admired Companies." This is International Paper's 12th time in the last 13 years to make the list. Companies are scored in nine categories: ability to attract and retain talented people, quality of management, social responsibility to the community and the environment, innovativeness, quality of products or services, wise use of corporate assets, financial soundness, long-term investment value and effectiveness in doing business globally.

"This recognition is well-deserved for our 58,000 talented employees around the globe that made this possible," said Mark Sutton, chairman and chief executive officer. "We continue to develop our employees to their full potential, while providing the highest level of customer service and innovative products. We also remain focused on delivering strong results for our shareholders.  Congratulations to all of our employees for making this happen."

Out of the nine key attributes on which companies are judged, International Paper took the top spot in four of those categories within its industry. Those categories included, people management, use of corporate assets, financial soundness and global competitiveness. 

Survey Methodology 

The FORTUNE/Hay Group study compiles its data from 719 companies in 60 industries. There are 466 U.S. companies and 253 nonU.S. companies. Of the 253 nonU.S. companies, 116 are domiciled in Europe; 122 are from the Asia/Pacific region; and 15 are from the Americas (excluding the U.S). The number of companies in an industry ranges from a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 15. The more international an industry, the more companies in the survey panel. There are several exceptions to the "15 maximum companies" rule. For industries with many large companies worldwide, like Megabanks, for example, a representative international cross section was constructed by Fortune's senior list editor. Four factors were taken into consideration: revenue size, country, past performance, and willingness to participate in the WMAC survey. In some cases, to achieve the representative cross section, as many as 17 companies are surveyed. To be eligible for the survey, a nonU.S. company must be in Fortune's Global 500 database, where companies with revenue for 2013 of approximately $10 billion are tracked. A U.S. company must be ranked in the 2014 FORTUNE 1,000 listing to be considered for the survey (company number 1,000 this year had revenue of $1.898 billion in 2013).