Stora Enso adds to group leadership team

van Nieuwenhuyzen is a Dutch citizen with extensive global business leadership experience in several industries, including food ingredients, biotechnology, chemicals and polymers.

Most recently, since 2010, he has been working as president of the enablers division at DuPont Nutrition & Health (formerly Danisco), based in Denmark.

Previously, he has worked in senior management positions at CSM (now Corbion), Rexam (in coated films and papers) and DSM (in chemicals and polymers).

van Nieuwenhuyzen is succeeding Hannu Alalauri, who is leaving Stora Enso to look for opportunities outside of the company.

Mannström is a Finnish citizen who has been at Stora Enso since 2001, working on several large investment and R&D projects, most recently as general manager of Stora Enso’s Guangxi project in China.

Prior to this, he held the position of senior vice president responsible for investments and operations in Stora Enso’s renewable packaging division, where he also bore responsibility for R&D. From 2006 to 2009, he was responsible for Stora Enso’s investment processes, including fund allocation, project development and steering projects in progress.

From 2001 to 2005, he was involved in two major paper machine investment projects.

In his new role, Mannström will head up the new group technology function at Stora Enso, which will be responsible for coordinating Stora Enso’s R&D and innovation agendas, managing the group’s investment processes, and leading energy services.

Both van Nieuwenhuyzen and Mannström will serve as members of Stora Enso’s group leadership team, with the appointments being effective as of March 16.

Stora Enso chief executive officer Karl-Henrik Sundström said: ‘Throughout his career, Gilles has demonstrated a strong track record of accelerating growth through business development and market-oriented innovation. This is the type of experience we need to transform Stora Enso into a renewable materials growth company.

‘Markus’ solid background in technology, investments and R&D is a valuable addition to our team. I am also pleased that we are able to nominate a current Stora Enso leader to this new key position.’

‘I would like to thank Hannu Alalauri, who has been leading the Packaging Solutions division, for his strong contribution in developing our innovative fibre-based packaging,’ added Sundström. ‘Hannu has had a long career in our paper and packaging businesses holding several key leadership positions and has been a valued member of our team.’