RockTenn’s Jim Rubright Named 2008 CEO of the Year

BOSTON—RISI, an information provider for the global forest products industry, announced that RockTenn Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rubright has been selected as this year’s RISI North American CEO of the Year for the forest products industry.

Each year, RISI surveys investment analysts and portfolio managers to make nominations for the award based on such criteria as leadership, vision and strategic accomplishment. The 2008 award will be presented to Rubright on Sept. 15 at the 23rd North American Forest Products Conference in Boston, Mass. Rubright will also deliver the keynote address and participate in a CEO Panel at the event. He joins other industry leaders such as Mike Covey, CEO, Potlatch; Lynn Michaelis, vice president, markets and economic research, Weyerhaeuser; and Peter Meirs, vice president, production technologies, Time Inc.

“The award recognizes Jim Rubright’s leadership role in transforming RockTenn into a more diversified, low-cost paperboard packaging producer through two key acquisitions, which have paid off in the company’s financial performance,” according to Will Mies, director, news editorial, RISI.

Once mainly a player in the declining recycled boxboard market, RockTenn, headquartered in Norcross, Ga., has diversified and expanded its product offering through the acquisition of two low-cost mills (plus related converting plants)—Gulf States Paper’s solid bleached sulfate (SBS) board mill in 2005 and Southern Container’s Solvay recycled containerboard mill in March 2008.

Rubright joined RockTenn as CEO in 1999. Previously, he served as executive vice president of Sonat, where he oversaw the Birmingham, Ala., company’s natural gas pipeline and energy marketing businesses. Prior to joining Sonat, he was a partner in the law firm of King & Spalding in Atlanta.

A native of Ship Bottom, N.J., Rubright received his law degree from the University of Virginia and BA from Yale University. He served as chairman of the American Forest and Paper Association, the industry’s national trade association, in 2007.