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GreenFirst appoints Joel Fournier as its new chief executive officer

GreenFirst Forest Products has appointed Joel Fournier as its new chief executive officer. Fournier will be taking over operations from interim CEO Paul Rivett, who will continue to serve as executive chair of the board of directors.

Fournier is reportedly a seasoned executive with over two decades of hands-on experience in lumber mills in both Eastern and Western Canada. He also has a strong background in the entire forest products value chain, including finance, sales and strategy.  Before joining GreenFirst, he served as the vice-president of coastal operations at Western Forest Products, a forestry company in British Columbia. Prior to that, he held the position of chief operating officer at Sinclair Group Forest Products, also in British Columbia.

“We are very excited to have Joel join us.  He is a proven leader with decades of experience in lumber mill operations,” said Paul Rivett, executive chair of GreenFirst.  “Joel brings his leadership and experience to optimize and grow our business at GreenFirst as we begin a new phase in the maturation of our young, focused and entrepreneurial company.”

Fournier grew up in a lumber mill town and studied Wood Science at Laval University. Additionally, he obtained his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Moncton. He began his career at JD Irving as a co-op student and steadily rose up the ranks to become director of lumber mill optimization and new product development. He will be based out of GreenFirst’s offices in Timmins, Ontario.