中文The Confederation of European Paper Industries, Cepi, has appointed Francesca Stevens as its new Director General, effective September 28, 2026, marking a leadership transition at a pivotal time for Europe’s pulp and paper sector. Stevens succeeds Jori Ringman, who led the Brussels-based association since 2019, and now oversees a twenty-four-person secretariat representing the industry’s interests before European Union institutions and other stakeholders at a moment of unusually high policy pressure.
She joins Cepi from EUROPEN, the European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment, where she served as Secretary General since 2020. In that role she represented a diverse packaging value chain spanning raw material producers, packaging manufacturers, and brand owners, building extensive experience in European policy debates on sustainability, circularity, industrial competitiveness, and the Single Market, precisely the terrain Cepi now navigates.
Stevens brings roughly twenty-five years of experience in European industry organizations, including senior leadership roles at Arconic and Alcoa. She holds a degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Turin and a master’s in European Studies from the College of Europe in Warsaw. Her appointment comes as Europe’s paper industry works to advance energy decarbonization, strengthen its place in the circular bioeconomy, and respond to mounting competitive pressures from producers in regions with lower energy costs.
Access to affordable energy, global industrial competition, and evolving European regulation remain central concerns for pulp and paper producers. Stevens’ background at the intersection of packaging and environment policy is well matched to those challenges, given how tightly the paper sector’s future is bound to circularity rules and carbon pricing. Her experience representing a broad packaging value chain should help Cepi engage credibly with both regulators and brand-owner customers, a constituency that increasingly drives demand for fibre-based packaging.
Cepi Chairman and Holmen CEO Henrik Sjolund welcomed the appointment, pointing to Stevens’ depth of experience. For the sector, the change at the top is less about a change of direction than about ensuring continuity of engagement at a moment when European industrial policy is being rewritten. The paper and packaging industries will be watching closely to see how the new leadership balances decarbonization ambitions against the commercial realities of international competition, and how it defends the sector’s claim to be a cornerstone of the circular bioeconomy.
The appointment is also a signal about the skills Cepi now prizes. A generation ago, the role might have gone to a veteran of pulp and paper operations. Today, with the sector’s fortunes tied as much to Brussels regulation as to mill performance, an executive with deep EU policy and packaging-value-chain experience is the natural fit. Stevens’ move from packaging to paper is itself telling: the two industries are converging around circularity, and the person who can speak for both is unusually valuable.
For converters and brand owners, Cepi’s posture matters because it shapes the regulatory environment in which they operate. Rules on packaging waste, forest certification, and carbon leakage directly affect the cost and availability of paper-based materials. A Director General who can frame the industry’s case in the language of EU policymakers, rather than as special pleading, improves the odds of workable outcomes.
The competitive backdrop cannot be ignored either. European pulp and paper producers face energy costs and emissions constraints that some overseas competitors do not, and they are pressing for measures that level the playing field without triggering trade disputes. Stevens’ record at EUROPEN, where she managed a similarly diverse membership, suggests she is accustomed to building consensus among parties with different interests, exactly the skill Cepi needs as it represents both forest owners and finished-goods manufacturers.
Source: https://inkish.news/en/article/francesca-stevens-takes-helm-at-cepi
