On behalf of the Center for Paper Business and Industry Studies Management Team, I wish you a very happy, prosperous, and healthy New Year! It is now eight years since the Center was established. There have been challenging times, during which I felt that CPBIS had been operating for much longer, but when I think about the opportunities that the Center has identified, the high caliber of the people it has engaged, and the community that we are continuing to build, I am surprised that eight years have passed. As we enter 2008, I would like to share with you the successes we have had this past year, and look ahead to the challenges and opportunities that will present themselves in the coming years.

Without question, CPBIS’s greatest achievement of 2007 occurred very early in the year when the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation approved our proposal, submitted in late 2006, to renew the Center’s funding for another three years. With the renewed funding, CPBIS continued to sponsor research faculty and students, supporting thirteen faculty and eight graduate students. Among those funded was Dr. Marilyn Brown, Professor of Public Policy at Georgia Tech and a well-known expert on energy policy and technology forecasting, engaged by CPBIS to examine implications of current energy policy for pulp and paper and the viability of potential sources of energy for the industry. The Center offered its highly valued management development program in June and October. And CPBIS-funded researchers presented their work at industry and academic conferences and published their findings in peer-reviewed academic journals.

CPBIS also participated in new efforts this past year. With additional Sloan funding, the Center sponsored a workshop at Georgia Tech with Finnish colleagues in an ongoing collaboration with the Lapeenranta University of Technology. Dubbed ‘Game Global’, the workshop brought together researchers and graduate students from Europe, South America, and North America to present and discuss research on the pulp and paper industry as well as to explore possibilities for collaborative research. The Center also co-hosted, with the Trucking Industry Program at Georgia Tech (another Sloan Industry Center), a Southeastern Regional Meeting of researchers affiliated with the Sloan Industry Studies Program. Similar to Game Global, the meeting’s objective was ‘research networking’.

We continue to connect with industry on several levels. We have a very engaged and supportive Board of Executives, chaired by George Weyerhaeuser (on leave at the World Business Council this past year) and co-chaired by Kathy Buckman Gibson (Buckman Laboratories), whose advice, counsel, and efforts have helped the Center in all of its activities. Center-affiliated researchers made eighteen presentations at industry conferences and published four articles in industry trade journals. We expected to sponsor a TechnoBusiness Forum (TBF) in September 2007, but conflicts with other industry events made it necessary to reschedule the TBF to the second week in May 2008. The TBF is a highly valued event but one that that continually poses calendar ‘positioning’ challenges for the Center.

As we enter the New Year, I would also like to express our deep gratitude to all of the Center’s sponsors, representing the various industry stakeholders, academic, industry, and non-profit organizations. Without your support, the Center would not be able to leverage the Sloan funding nearly as well as we do.

Because the Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Program funds its centers for, at most, a nine-year period, some may regard CPBIS as being in its ‘sunset’ years. However, for the past year and for the next two years, we have had and will have two high-priority and interrelated objectives: (1) to maintain and expand research, education, and connectivity efforts that are of high value to its industry, academic, and other stakeholders, in order (2) to attract industry sponsors and help the Center to develop new relationships with academe, government, and industry while strengthening existing ones. Success on both fronts will ensure that the Center continues its work on a self-sustaining basis long after the cycle of Sloan funding ends in 2009. And we are making progress. The Center is actively pursuing development activities (see following article) and has conceived and implemented a comprehensive development plan. As part of that plan, the Center’s executive director (Jacquie McNutt), director (Pat McCarthy), and associate director for industry liaison (Colleen Walker), working with the Board of Executives, will visit a broad set of companies to demonstrate the Center’s potential and make the case for increased funding.

CPBIS is working hard to expand its collaborative relationships and is continuously seeking to develop new initiatives. Through its research, the Center expands the body of industry-related business knowledge that companies can draw on to prosper in a highly globalized and competitive market environment. Through its management development program, the Center strengthens the management skills of key employees. Through a developing student scholarship program, the Center helps companies target the next generation of highly skilled employees. Through its Web site (www.cpbis.gatech.edu), the Center provides connectivity on all of its activities and key industry events.

2008 promises to be an exciting year for CPBIS and we invite all of our academic and industry colleagues to share in the Center’s growth.