GNP announces overhaul of management team

MILLINOCKET – Great Northern Paper Inc. has announced a restructuring of its management team in an effort to improve the company’s competitiveness.

Brian Stetson, GNP’s manager of governmental affairs, said the company has been considering restructuring of management for its paper mill operations. He said the departure of company president Eldon Doody earlier this week provided an opportunity to implement it immediately. He said no decision has been made about the president’s position.

Stetson said the restructuring would lay the groundwork for overhauling operation of the company to achieve greater efficiency, reduce costs and to improve the competitive position of the company.

“The company is going to be run as one cohesive business unit, as if there was one paper mill instead of two,” said Stetson. Now, one general manager will oversee the operations of the company’s Millinocket and East Millinocket paper mills instead of having two separate paper mill managers.

“There will be a general manager in charge of both mills and a production manager at each mill,” said Stetson. We are no longer going to have a duplication of management structure … We will have one centralized management for the production operations of the entire company.”

Stetson said there will be a central manager of engineering and maintenance instead of duplicating these positions at each mill.

Lambert Bedard, GNP’s owner and chief executive officer, on Wednesday named Michael Parker as general manager of operations. Parker, who has worked in management roles for one year at Great Northern, has 29 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry. He has held management positions with St. Regis Paper, Finlay Forest Products and Irving Paper. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of California.

Ron Spear has been named manager of maintenance and engineering. Spear, who for the past years has been maintenance manager at the Millinocket paper mill, has 26 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry including Bear Island Paper, Champion International and Irving Paper. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maine.

Robert Harvey is production manager at the Millinocket paper mill. Harvey, who has worked at GNP for 12 years, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Maine.

Michael Reider is production manager at the East Millinocket paper mill. Reider, who has worked at GNP for two years, had 13 years of experience in industrial and pulp and paper engineering and construction management with Northeast Industrial Service Co., Wade and Searway and Pacific Gulf Maine. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marine engineering operations from Maine Maritime Academy.

Meanwhile, about 150 employees from both paper mills are expected to return to work later this month.

Citing lack of orders, Great Northern shut down its No. 10 paper machine at the Millinocket mill on Nov. 29 for two weeks, but later extended the shutdown until Dec. 27. The shutdown affected about 60 people. The machine makes a matte-coated paper used for school textbooks.

Last week, the company also temporarily shut down the No. 5 paper machine at its East Millinocket mill for two weeks, affecting about 90 employees. Stetson said the machine is expected to go back on line Dec. 30. The machine makes telephone directory paper.

Stetson said production was curtailed on the No. 5 paper machine in East Millinocket because this time of year – Christmas through the early part of every year – is typically slow for directory paper orders.