MIAMISBURG, Ohio, Sept. 9  -- NewPage Corporation today announced David J. Prystash will join the company's senior leadership team effective September 22, 2008 as senior vice president and chief financial officer. In this position, Mr. Prystash will be responsible for overseeing the financial activities for the entire company including financial planning and investor relations as well as participating in strategic planning and implementation.

Reporting to Mark Suwyn, chairman and chief executive officer, Mr. Prystash joins NewPage from Ford Motor Company where he most recently served as the chief financial officer for Ford's global product development and purchasing. "We are pleased to have attracted a finance professional of David's caliber to join NewPage," said Suwyn. "His proven fiscal management expertise and experience across a broad range of finance operations will benefit NewPage as we structure our organization and processes for the next phase of growth."

Mr. Prystash has been global controller, Product Development at Ford Motor Company since June 2005. He was executive director, Preowned and Remarketing Strategy at Ford from July 2003 to June 2005. Prior to that, he served as controller, North American Product Programs at Ford since August 2001. From January 2000 to August 2001, he served as director, Corporate Business Development at Ford.

Jason W. Bixby, who joined NewPage from the Cerberus Operations team, will return to Cerberus to provide operational and financial support for their other portfolio companies. "Jason's proven track record in operations, finance and acquisitions has enabled him to do an exceptional job to improve our finance function," added Suwyn. "He did a great job putting in place the disciplined processes and analytic capabilities that were critical in our acquisition and current integration activities with the acquisition of Stora Enso's North American facilities last December. His leadership has been appreciated and we wish him well."

Mr. Prystash has been a member of the board of directors of NewPage Corporation, NewPage Holding Corporation and NewPage Group Inc. since April 2006. With this change, he has resigned from the board and the audit committee of all three companies, effective September 5, 2008. Charles E. Long, a member of the NewPage Board of Directors, was elected September 5, 2008, to serve as a member of the audit committee of all three companies in addition to his current duties on the compensation committee.