Features Water & Chemicals Workforce
Top 10 Under 40: Meet Alex Moline from Dryden Fibre Canada

The next generation of leaders in Canada’s pulp and paper industry are striving hard to build a resilient future. The winners of the 2023 Top 10 Under 40 program are constantly raising the bar for their peers with their forward-thinking initiatives and their zeal to make a lasting difference. The future of the industry is in the secure hands of these young professionals who not only take ownership of their responsibilities but contribute beyond what is expected of them.

The winners this year work in different roles and capacities within the industry, but share some key characteristics – strong work ethic, commitment to their roles and a desire to innovate and improve.

This week we introduce Alex Moline, bleach plant area supervisor, Dryden Fibre Canada, Dryden, Ont.

At 29 years old Alex Moline has continually demonstrated that he is a powerhouse within the sector.

Beginning his career as a process engineer in 2017, he learnt mill processes taking on various projects and was entrusted with a rotating “environmental on-call” assignment. In 2019 he was promoted to supervising 35 employees in the chip handling, yard and recaustizer areas. Here he supported a project to commission advanced controls and online liquor analysis in the recaustizer area resulting in an improved overall increase in causticizing efficiency of two percent and a large reduction in dead load in the liquor cycle. He oversaw major upgrades to the mill’s chip screening system and the conversion from flip-flow liwell screens to a diamond roll system in the chip handling area. In 2022 Alex was promoted to bleach plant area supervisor overseeing all the chemical handling for and the operations of the chemical plant. He currently supervises 20 people, being responsible for the daily direction of work and the safety and environmental management of the area and workers.

Alex regularly serves on cross-functional teams for continuous improvement initiatives. He is the youngest person to ever be entrusted with on-call leadership responsibilities at the Dryden site, assuming the role of emergency response field manager and acting as the single point of contact during weekends to address any critical management issues.

Alex’s strong focus on safety across the site ensures his team manages its work safely and promptly addresses any safety incidents. He recently received certification as a Process Safety Management Auditor providing the opportunity to conduct compliance audits at other mill sites focusing on effective safety management. He also currently holds a role as the technical program chair with the Energy, Recovery and Recaust Committee, a division within TAPPI.