Port Townsend Paper

Port Townsend Paper is a company with a strong past
...and a great future.

In the 1920s, Port Townsend, Washington fought hard to be the site of Crown Zellerbach’s new mill. Through the persistence of local townspeople, the mill was finally located in the Glen Cove area, after nearly being lost to Aberdeen. The Port Townsend Leader has issued only two EXTRA issues in its long history. One of these was on July 2, 1927, announcing that Crown Zellerbach has assured that Port Townsend would be the site of the new mill. This historic issue states, “The history of the long up-hill campaign that has made possible the securing of the big Zellerbach mill for Port Townsend makes a story of a dogged fight against heavy odds that will go down in local history.” Indeed, the Port Townsend Paper Mill has become an integral part of local history, local families, and local livelihood.

The pulp and paper mill at this location has been in operation since 1927 and is Jefferson County’s largest private employer. A variety of unbleached pulp and paper products are produced at the Port Townsend mill including market pulp, converting paper, and containerboard. Also part of the Port Townsend Paper Corporation Family of Companies are three Crown Packaging Plants, two BoxMaster Plants, and the Crown Creative Group, located in British Columbia and Alberta.

Port Townsend Paper Corporation’s officers continue to guide the company with the strength and conviction that originally won the paper mill for Port Townsend.

Joe Beers
Vice President Strategic Initiatives & System Integration

Joe held various positions of increasing responsibility during his previous Port Townsend Paper career that began in 1988. Those roles included Technical Director, Assistant Paper Machine and Finishing Manager, Portland Plant Manager and Vice President, Converting Operations. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Evergreen State College. Shortly after the bag plants in Portland, Oregon and Port Townsend were shut down in December 2001, Joe left the company to pursue outside opportunities. As of August 1, 2003, he returned to Port Townsend Paper.

John Cherry
General Manager, Alberta

John is the Plant Manager for Crown Packaging Alberta, in Calgary. He has been with Crown for three years, serving in a range of senior management roles. He has brought operations management experience with him from Labatt Brewing in New Westminster, and has a total of sixteen years of experience in production management positions. John holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business with a Management major.

James Devries
General Manager, Okanagan

James is Director of Sales for the Okanagan & Alberta areas. He received his diploma in Marketing Management from BCIT in 1988 and began his career with Crown Packaging in 1989 as a customer service representative, and he rapidly moved to the position of corrugated sales representative in Edmonton, Alberta in 1990. James held several other Crown Packaging sales representative roles in Richmond, B.C. and Calgary, Alberta before moving to the corrugated sales manager position in 1999.

Bob McQueen
Manager Crown Creative

Bob McQueen is the Manager of the Crown Creative group. His Crown Packaging career started in 1976 at Flexpak a division of Crown Packaging that was later sold. While at Flexpak he held positions in product development and sales. In October 1991 he rejoined Crown Packaging as Sales Representative.

Bob became Sales Manager, Corrugated in November 1993; Marketing Manager for the Canadian Packaging Group effective February 2000; he accepted a temporary assignment to coordinate the integration of Crown Creative and the duties associated with the downsizing of the Art & Die Department at Richmond in September 2001. Bob became Manager, Crown Creative in April 2005, which is the title he holds today.

Bob graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science (Zoology) Degree and received his Teacher Training Certificate in 1976.

Chuck Madison
Vice President, Human Resources

Chuck has been a human resources manager since 1985. He has spent over 25 years working in various human resources positions in the pulp and paper industry. For most of his career, he worked for Rayonier Inc. at mills in Port Angeles WA, Fernandina Beach FL, and Jesup GA. He came to Port Townsend in February 1998. Chuck was promoted to the position of Vice President Human Resources in March 2001. Besides Human Resources, included in his areas of responsibility is public relations for the company. He is a 1972 graduate of Washington State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with emphasis in Personnel Management.

Eveleen Muehlethaler
Vice President, Environmental Affairs

Eveleen is responsible for corporate oversight for environmental compliance. She earned her BS in Chemistry and Biology from Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa and her MS degree in Pulp and Paper from the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin. She started her career with Port Townsend Paper in December 1983, as Technical Superintendent. In 1991, she became Paper Machine Superintendent. The management responsibility for the Finishing, Shipping and Order Entry departments was added to that position in 1993. In 1997, she became Fiber Optimization Manager with responsibility for process optimization. In 1998 she was promoted to the position of Area Manager, Technical Services. Eveleen assumed corporate responsibilities in October 2001, when she became Corporate Technical Services Manager. In 2003, she became Vice President & Assistant Mill Manager and in 2008, she was promoted to Vice President, Environmental Affairs.

Mike Scardina
General Manager, Crown Packaging Richmond

Mike began his career with Crown Packaging in 1985 as a summer student, returning each summer for five years while he attended post secondary school. In the early 1990s he began working in the office as a specification and costing assistant and progressed into a sales representative role in 1993.

In 1999, Mike left the company to become Product Manager, Coated Papers for InterWrap Papers Ltd. Before returning to Crown Packaging as Assistant General Manager in August 2004, Mike was in a dual role as Western Region Sales Manager of InterWrap Inc. and General Manager of InterWrap Papers Ltd.

Cheryl Sullivan
Director Process Management

Cheryl’s career with the company began in 1979 when she joined predecessor company Crown Zellerbach in their Vancouver head office in a clerical role. In 1981 she moved to the flexible packaging division in customer service and shortly thereafter as a sales representative servicing the lower mainland. In 1991 she assumed the responsibility of Sales Manager, managing both sales and customer service for all custom product sales in Canada and the U.S.

In 1995, Cheryl moved to the Crown Packaging Folding Carton Division as Account Manager, then became Sales Manager of this division in 1997. She was responsible for all North American sales out of the Winnipeg facility.

In 2001 Cheryl joined Boxmaster as Sales Manager for the Burnaby and Kelowna divisions, again responsible for both sales and customer service activities. She served there as Vice-President and General Manager for the Burnaby and Kelowna Boxmaster Plants before moving to her current position in 2006.

Jeff Welch
General Manager, Boxmaster

Jeff is currently the General Manager for the Boxmaster Operations, in Burnaby, British Columbia. After receiving his diploma in Business Management with a Marketing option from Capilano College, Jeff began his career with Crown Packaging in 1988. Since that time, Jeff has performed various roles for the organization, including spending the last five years as Sales Manager at Crown Packaging Richmond.