BOSTON, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry, today announced that RockTenn Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rubright has been selected as this year's RISI North American CEO of the Year for the forest products industry. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080521/NEW122LOGO ) Each year, RISI surveys investment analysts and portfolio managers to make nominations for the award based on such criteria as leadership, vision and strategic accomplishment. The 2008 award will be presented to Rubright on September 15th at the 23rd North American Forest Products Conference in Boston, MA. Rubright will also deliver the keynote address and participate in a CEO Panel at the event. He joins other industry leaders such as Mike Covey, CEO, Potlatch; Lynn Michaelis, Vice President, Markets and Economic Research, Weyerhaeuser; Peter Meirs, Vice President, Production Technologies, Time Inc. and more on the program. "The award recognizes Jim Rubright's leadership role in transforming RockTenn into a more diversified, low-cost paperboard packaging producer through two key acquisitions which have paid off in the company's financial performance," according to Will Mies, Director, News Editorial, RISI. Once mainly a player in the declining recycled boxboard market, RockTenn, headquartered in Norcross, GA, has diversified and expanded its product offering through the acquisition of two low-cost mills (plus related converting plants) -- Gulf States Paper's solid bleached sulfate (SBS) board mill in 2005 and Southern Container's Solvay recycled containerboard mill in March 2008. "Jim Rubright's leadership at RockTenn has transitioned the company into a leader in several substrates and outperformed the industry," one analyst commented. "He reduced debt from the Gulf States acquisition months ahead of schedule. The company's return on assets, investment, equity and EBITDA margin over the past year and past five years have all exceeded industry averages and those for its peer group. All metrics point to Jim Rubright deserving recognition for this honor," she concluded. Another analyst noted, "He has the company focused on all the right things -- lowering costs, cash flow generation, debt reduction, return on invested capital and profitably growing the business." Rubright joined RockTenn as CEO in 1999. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President of Sonat, where he oversaw the Birmingham, AL, company's natural gas pipeline and energy marketing businesses. Prior to joining Sonat, he was a partner in the law firm of King & Spalding in Atlanta. A native of Ship Bottom, NJ, Rubright received his law degree from the University of Virginia and BA from Yale University. He served as chairman of the American Forest and Paper Association, the industry's national trade association, in 2007. For more information on RISI's 23rd North American Forest Products Conference, visit http://www.risiinfo.com/na_conf . Contact: Jen Rahall Senior Marketing Manager RISI 4 Alfred Circle Bedford, MA 01730 U.S.A. Tel: +1.781.734.8949 Email: About RISI RISI is the leading information provider for the global forest products industry. The company works with clients in the pulp and paper, wood products, timber, tissue, nonwovens, printing and publishing industries to help them make better decisions. Headquartered in Boston (Bedford), Massachusetts, RISI operates offices in Brussels, Belgium; Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Singapore; and Charlottesville, Virginia. More information can be found at http://www.risiinfo.com/ . About RockTenn RockTenn is one of North America's leading manufacturers of paperboard, containerboard, packaging and merchandising displays, with annual net sales of approximately $3.0 billion. RockTenn is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia and operates locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. RockTenn's class A Common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RKT. For more information, visit http://www.rocktenn.com/ . http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080521/NEW122LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: RISI CONTACT: Jen Rahall, Senior Marketing Manager of RISI, +1-781-734-8949, Web site: http://www.risiinfo.com/ http:/www.risiinfo.com/na_conf http://www.rocktenn.com/

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