BC Business
Forestry | BCBusinessCatalyst Paper has named Joe Nemeth president and CEO.
Troubled Catalyst Paper Corp. has named a new president and CEO. Joe Nemeth will take over from interim leader Leslie Lederer effective October 1. Nemeth was most recently president and CEO of Canfor Pulp, a position he left in September 2012, when the pulp division was re-absorbed into parent company Canfor Corp. He had joined Canfor as vice-president of sales in 2003. He was president and CEO of Greenbelt Renewable Energy from 2000 to 2003, and prior to that, Nemeth worked for Fletcher Challenge from 1987-2000, including serving as manager at the Elk Falls mill, which would later be a Catalyst Paper mill. (Following a number of acquisitions, Fletcher Challenge was renamed Catalyst Paper in 2005.) Catalyst emerged from creditor protection in September and its shares resumed trading on the TSX in January this year. The company underwent a restructuring under the leadership of Kevin Clarke between June 2010 and Clarke’s departure in April this year. During that time, Catalyst shut down and sold a mill in Snowflake, Arizona and sold its Elk Falls mill on Vancouver Island, which had closed permanently in 2003. The company continues to operate three paper mills in B.C.: in Crofton and Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, and Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. In it most recent quarter, Catalyst posted a loss of $28 million on sales of $263.4 million