Foresters
Howard Charles: Forester
Howard Charles has over 30 years of forestry experience and is a licensed forester in the state of Maine. Retired from Sappi, Howard acts as a contractor and assists the SFPNA Sustainable Forestry Program with purchasing timber and setting up forest operations. During his career at Sappi, Howard served as a forester and Manager of the Stumpage Program.

Katie Cousins: Forester and Associate Wildlife Biologist ®
Katie Cousins is a licensed intern forester in the State of Maine as well as a certified Associate Wildlife Biologist ®. She is also a member of the Society of American Foresters and the Wildlife Society. Katie spends most of her work (and free!) time outdoors and frequently works with private landowners on the management of their woodlots, especially in wildlife enhancement. Katie is a recent graduate of the University of Maine with a B.S. in Forestry and a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology.

Pete Foss: Forester
Pete Foss has been a licensed forester in the state of Maine for over 30 years, a stumpage forester for 15 years, and was the wood yard supervisor at Sappi's Somerset Mill for 10 years. Pete enjoys outdoor activities including working with private landowners on the management of their timber.

Charlie Hall: Manager of the SFPNA Sustainable Forestry Program
Charlie Hall is the Manager of the Sustainable Forestry Program at SFPNA. His experience at Sappi includes buying chips for the Somerset Mill under wood procurement. Prior to Sappi, he worked for James River and Crown Vantage in Berlin, New Hampshire. Charlie has a B.S. in Forestry/concentration Wood Technology from the University of Maine.

Seth Robinson: Wood Buyer/Manager/Forester
Seth Robinson has over 30 years of experience working in forest operations at Sappi. As an Operations Manager in Wood Procurement at SFPNA, he is responsible for purchasing wood from landowners and private woodlots. At Sappi, he has also supervised forest layout, management and harvest, and has worked as a wood cutter. In his spare time, Seth enjoys going out on his boat, working on his home/woodlot/farm and spending time with his grandchildren.

John Starrett: Forester
John Starrett has over 30 years of experience working in forestry and woodlot management. He is a licensed forester in the State of Maine and has 20 years of experience coordinating non-industrial private woodlot management. At Sappi, John's primary role is to purchase timber and operate woodlots. John is an active member of the Maine Tree Farm Committee and serves as the area chair for the Androscoggin and Sagadahoc counties.

Joe Stevenson: Forester
Joe Stevenson is a licensed forester in the State of Maine and is a current member of Small Woodlot Owner's Association of Maine (SWOAM). Before joining Sappi, Joe spent 4 years as a Forest Ranger in the Rangeley district. Joe spends most of his work and free time outdoors and works primarily with private landowners on the management of their woodlots. In his spare time, he also enjoys working on his family's strawberry farm in Maine. Joe is a recent graduate of the University of Maine with a B.S. in Forestry.


Wood Procurement
Ron Bugeau: Senior Wood Procurement Manager
Ron Bugeau has 30 years of experience working in wood procurement throughout New England. Currently, he is responsible for pulpwood procurement in northern New Hampshire and Vermont, which includes hardwood pulpwood procurement at the woodyards in Berlin and North Stratford, New Hampshire and West Burke, Vermont.

Ryan McAvoy: Region Manager
Ryan McAvoy has many years of experience managing wood procurement and forest products. At Sappi, he has managed wood procurement at SFPNA mills in Maine, Michigan and Minnesota including serving as Procurement Manager of the North East Region of Maine, before serving his current role. Ryan is a graduate of the University of Maine with a B.S. in Forest Management and is a member of the Society of American Foresters and the Forest Resources Association.

Chip Millick: Senior Wood Procurement Manager
Chip Millick is a licensed forester in the State of Maine and is responsible for purchasing biomass for both the Somerset and Westbrook Mills in Maine. Previously at Sappi, Chip worked as a forest technician supervising forestry crews, purchasing pulpwood/chips, and managing both the Stumpage and Broker Programs.

Rick Pembroke: Wood Buyer/Quality Manager
Rick Pembroke supports all phases of wood fiber and wood fuel procurement, purchase, delivery and storage/piledown. Rick currently holds professional State of Maine licenses as a forester and wood scaler. As a woodbuyer/quality manager, he manages all inspections, tracks/reports piledown inventories in external yards, oversees the scalehouse operations, manages all railwood activities and is the safety coordinator for the Wood Procurement Group.

Luke Robinson: Senior Wood Procurement Manager
Luke Robinson is responsible for securing open market pulpwood for the Somerset Mill in Skowhegan, Maine, for woodyard operations. His previous procurement experience includes serving as the Log Sales Manager for Somerset Mill and a Purchasing Agent for Northeast Timberlands when Sappi held company lands. Luke's forest management experience includes serving as a field scaler, a Somerset Mill scaler, and forestry technician. He also holds a license as a wood scaler in the State of Maine.

Forest Weston: Area Manager - West Operations (ME/NH)
Forest Weston manages the purchasing of open market pulpwood, biomass and sawlogs, as well as the Forest Products Sales for the Northeast Region. Currently, he is a licensed forester both in the State of Maine and New Hampshire. Forest has a B.S. in Forestry/Wood Technology in 1982 from the University of Maine.

Wood Procurement Administration
Nancy Bickford: Sales and Receivable Administrator
Nancy Bickford handles all of the external sales of wood for Maine and Minnesota. She also coordinates the billing and payments from wood sales for Maine and Minnesota.

Kevin McCarthy: Manager of Certification/Business Process Engineer
Kevin McCarthy has 30 years of experience working in technical forestry services and is responsible for managing SFPNA's fiber certification, as well as the design and development of business systems for the wood procurement group. He has degrees in forestry, forest biometrics and bio-statistics and is currently a licensed professional forester, licensed wood scaler and international auditor. Kevin is also a member of several forest and conservation associations including Maine Forest Products Council, Ducks Unlimited, the Wild Turkey Federation and the Ruffed Grouse Society.

Bonnie Mercado: Administrator
Bonnie Mercado has over 30 years of administrative experience and is responsible for payment setup, check requests/advances, and vendor set-up for all of Sappi Fine Paper North America. Bonnie started her career with Sappi in Greenville, Maine.

Joanne Obert: Administrator Support
Joanne Obert is responsible for paying internal vendors, monitoring billing and corrections, reviews rates, and does manual ticket entry for all 5 pile down yards, for all of Maine, Minnesota and Michigan. In her spare time, Joanne enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, camping, and horseback riding.

Les Swartz: Manager Wood Resource Business Systems
Les Swartz has over 20 years of experience working for SFPNA and is responsible for managing the Administrative team that supports our Wood Procurement group. Les is also responsible for IT troubleshooting in the wood procurement office. Since 1979, he has been an officer in the United States Army and in 2006, he completed a 12-month tour of duty as an Engineer Brigade Commander in Afghanistan.

Allan Damon: Scaler-Westbrook
Allan Damon is one of the scalers at the Westbrook Mill. He joined Sappi as a Scaler at our Ossipee, New Hampshire chip plant in 1982, and transferred to Westbrook in 1986.

Larry Godin: Scaling Manager-Somerset Mill
Larry Godin is responsible for recording trip ticket information, scaling 150+ loads of forest products and miscellaneous materials per shift, and directing material to its proper location for unloading. As needed, Larry inspects material for quality and compliance with mill specifications as well as train and update all scalers on SAP and works with I.T. to resolve SAP and I.T issues that hinder scaling performance. In his career with Sappi, Larry as held many positions in the company, including a forester in the procurement group. Larry holds professional licenses in the State of Maine as a Scaler and Forester, and received an A.S. and B.S. in Forest Management from the University of Maine.

Dennis Kelly: Scaler-Westbrook
Dennis Kelly has held many positions over his career with Sappi. When he first started with the company, he was based in the Jackman district as a wood cutter before becoming a scaler. Dennis later worked as a forest technician, aiding in forest layout, inspections, and mapping. Dennis also worked out of the Greenville and Marshall yards before locating to Westbrook in 1991. In his current position, Dennis is responsible for weighing trucks as they come to the Westbrook facility.

Rick Ste. Croix: Quality Scaler, Somerset Scalehouse
Rick Ste. Croix has been at SAPPI Somerset Scalehouse since 2005. Prior to Sappi, he worked for Great Northern Paper Co. as a Logging Camp clerk, and later transferred to the Mill Scaling Department, working at many of Great Northern's scalehouses. In his current role, he weighs about 150 trucks per shift including T/L hardwood, T/L Softwood, Softwood Chips, Biomass Fuel and miscellaneous loads. Rick is a 1973 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Thompson School, with an Associate Degree in Forestry, and is a licensed Scaler in the State of Maine. In his spare time, Rick and his family help maintain hiking trails for Maine Appalachian Trail Club and Baxter State Park, with a special focus on a 5-mile section of the AT in Maine.