中文UPM and Sappi have conditionally nominated the remaining members of the management team for their planned graphic paper joint venture, following earlier conditional nominations of Gunnar Eberhardt as chief executive officer and Stephen Blyth as chief financial officer. The fresh appointments fill the senior leadership below the top two roles, and like the earlier ones they are conditional on receipt of all regulatory approvals and completion of the transaction.
The new names are Jan Gustafsson, Marco Eikelenboom, Antti Hermonen and Jan-Sander van Tuijl. Gustafsson has been conditionally nominated as senior vice president, human resources, with responsibility for HR, strategy, communications, sustainability and legal; he currently serves as vice president, human resources, at UPM Communication Papers. Eikelenboom has been nominated as senior vice president, sales and marketing, responsible for those functions, and is currently chief executive officer of Sappi Europe SA.
Hermonen has been nominated as senior vice president, operations, covering operations, R&D, energy and sourcing, and currently serves as senior vice president, operations, at UPM Communication Papers. Van Tuijl has been nominated as senior vice president, supply chain, and is currently vice president, supply chain and procurement, at Sappi Europe SA. The mix deliberately blends leaders from both parent companies, signaling that the joint venture is intended to be a genuine combination rather than a takeover by either side.
“We are pleased to nominate these four individuals to join Gunnar and Stephen. Their collective experience, proven ability to lead through change and strong understanding of the industry will be instrumental in building a resilient and competitive business that delivers long-term value for customers, employees and shareholders,” said UPM president and CEO Massimo Reynaudo and Sappi CEO Steve Binnie.
Stephen Blyth, as previously communicated, has been conditionally nominated as chief financial officer, responsible for finance and control, tax and treasury, as well as internal audit, IT and real estate. He is currently CFO of Sappi Europe SA. The structure places finance and operations, sales and people functions in clearly delineated hands, a conventional but sensible skeleton for a large industrial combination.
The joint venture itself was announced in 2025, with definitive agreements signed in May 2026. It remains subject to merger control approval by the European Commission and authorities in other jurisdictions, with final resolutions expected by the end of 2026. As announced on April 28, 2026, the review has proceeded to Phase II of EU merger control, and UPM continues to engage with the Commission during that second stage. Until closing, both companies operate independently, with current leadership staying in place.
The background is a graphic paper market in structural decline across Europe, where digital media has eroded demand for coated and uncoated printing papers for years. Combining UPM’s and Sappi’s graphic paper assets is a defensive but rational response: consolidation can remove duplicate capacity, stabilize pricing and preserve scale that neither company could justify alone. For customers, the hope is continuity of supply and a more resilient supplier; for employees, the concern is always overlap and redundancy, which is why the careful, two-parent leadership design matters.
The transaction is one to watch through the end of 2026. If the European Commission clears it, two of the region’s largest graphic paper producers will have reshaped the competitive landscape in one move, creating a venture built to outlast the long downward trend in traditional printing papers.
The appointment structure also signals how seriously both boards are taking antitrust scrutiny. By distributing leadership evenly between UPM and Sappi executives, the venture avoids the appearance of a unilateral takeover that could alarm regulators or customers. That balance may prove essential during the European Commission’s Phase II review, which exists precisely to examine whether a combination would reduce competition or harm customers in graphic papers. For the workforce, the design offers a measure of reassurance that the new entity intends to draw on strengths from both sides rather than impose one culture. Still, joint ventures of this scale carry execution risk: aligning two large industrial organizations on IT, procurement and commercial policy is rarely seamless, and the leadership team named today will be judged on whether it can deliver synergies without disrupting supply. If cleared, the venture will be a defining test of whether consolidation can give Europe’s graphic paper sector a steadier footing as secular demand keeps sliding.
For customers, the near-term reassurance is that both companies continue to operate independently until closing, so supply and service should not be disrupted by the announcement itself. The longer-term question is whether the venture can stabilize a market where overcapacity and declining demand have pressured margins for years. Consolidation of this kind can reduce duplicate costs and bring more discipline to pricing, which may ultimately mean steadier supply and fewer abrupt product changes for buyers. Employees, naturally, will watch for overlap in commercial and operational functions, the usual source of redundancy in such combinations. The two-parent leadership design is meant to soften that concern by signaling respect for both organizations. If the European Commission approves and the venture launches in 2027 as planned, it will be one of the more significant reshapings of the European graphic paper landscape in recent memory, and a template others may study.
