The Nano Puzzle--Putting the Pieces Together
8:00, Tuesday, 25 June
Allan Ward
President, Chief Operating Officer
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc.
Al Ward is President and COO of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (Al-Pac), the newest, largest single line kraft pulp mill in North America, with production starting in 1993. Mr. Ward has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Alberta and over 30 years of experience in the forest industry in a various production, technical and senior management positions. The company utilizes some of the latest in chemical pulping technology and annually produces approximately 650,000 tonnes of northern bleached hardwood and softwood kraft pulp. Al-Pac is known as an environmental leader, practices sustainable forest management and was third party FSC certified in 2005 and SFI dual certified in 2013. The company employs 450 full time employees and approximately 1,000 contractors and has been voted one of Canada’s “Top 100 Employers for 2014” and one of “Alberta’s Top 60 Employers for 2013” for seven years running.
Mr. Ward is the past Chairman and a current board member of FPInnovations, Canada’s Forest and Pulp and Paper Research Institute and currently holds a board position on the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC). Over his many years in the Industry, he has served on a number of industry related technical committees with Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada (PAPTAC) and Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI). Al also was involved with the Alberta Economic Development Authority which is a business advisory board to the Premier and Cabinet of Alberta with up to 65 CEO’s and business leaders who are appointed by Ministerial Order to provide sound business advice to the Premier and Cabinet. He is currently chair of the Alberta provincial steering committee for forest sector related nano-technology research as well as a board member of Arboranano the Canadian Forest NanoProducts Network, an R&D network where nanotechnology and forest-sector expertise are committed to creating a new Canadian bio-economy founded on innovative, highly-engineered, nanotechnology-based, carbon-neutral products created from Canada's vast forest resource. Mr. Ward is also heavily involved in the transformation efforts of the forest sector in Canada to new bio products, fuels and chemicals.
Commercial Break-Through in MFC Processing
8:00, Wednesday, 26 June
Per Svending
Commercial Director
Imerys FiberLeanTM
Per has worked 35 years for the paper industry. After chemical engineering studies in Gothenburg Sweden he joined Eka Chemicals (today AkzoNobel) in 1979 and was part of the team that developed the first nano-particle based retention aid system, Compozil. His work at Eka Chemicals gradually progressed from R&D to wet end application and into commercial roles via a period in product management. In 1989 he joined Stora Papyrus Mölndal for a role as technical manager, coated papers. The combination of wet end and coating experience facilitated a move to English China Clays in 1994. The career in what has now become Imerys started as sales director for Scandinavia and has moved through various key account manager roles to product management and global marketing to the current role in the FiberLeanTM team. Per was one of the inventors of the FiberLeanTM process and is now heading up the commercialisation effort for this breakthrough technology. Off-duty, his favourite activities are motorcycling, skiing, kayaking and cooking.
Imerys is announcing a commercial break-through in MFC processing with over 3000 dry metric tons of MFC capacity installed in Europe and North America with one commercial and one pilot plant running. Branded as FiberLeanTM, Imerys´ MFC offers paper makers the opportunity to become more cost competitive and to develop new differentiated products. Imerys plans to be the world leading MFC producer and is currently in discussions aimed at building several customer plants around the world.
