Ksenia Sosnina also took part in the business program of the Fastmarkets RISI European Conference

The key event of the Fastmarkets RISI European Conference held in March 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, was the European CEO of the Year award ceremony. Ilim Group CEO Ksenia Sosnina is the first woman to receive this award. Matt Graves, Senior Vice President, Fastmarkets RISI, congratulated Ksenia Sosnina on receiving this award. 

In her thank you speech, Ilim Group CEO said that the award was a great honor not only for her personally, but for almost 20,000 people who define ILIM.  “I am grateful to all my colleagues who trust in Ilim Group and follow our success story. I would also like to thank RISI for doing a great job to consolidate our professional community”, said Ksenia Sosnina.

Ilim Group CEO emphasized that both Ilim Group and the entire industry are now on the precipice of a big change. “Never before did we have to adjust and change so rapidly. We need to see the big picture, we need to think of the future in terms of digitalization, automation, and modern technologies, which will shape our industry in the next several years”, said Ksenia Sosnina. She also expressed her confidence that the industry will see more and more female professionals emerging at every level.

According to industry experts, Ksenia Sosnina’s victory in this prestigious nomination was driven by a number of factors: “The Company had great performance in 2018, achieving very high margins by industry standards. Significant investments were made in order to improve environmental standards at the mills in 2018-2019”, indicated the nominators. 

Another made note: “Ilim Group has been investing/growing significantly this year”. The industry professionals also emphasized that Ksenia Sosnina is an extraordinary person and holds a unique position in the male-dominated P&P industry.

Ksenia Sosnina also took part in the business program of the Fastmarkets RISI European Conference, including a panel discussion attended by European CEOs. The program covered such multidimensional topics as the containerboard market outlook for 2020, macroeconomic factors of supply and demand, changes in consumer demand and key challenges faced by the industry. Together with Ksenia Sosnina, the discussion was attended by Berry Wiersum, Sappi Fine Paper Europe CEO, Harald Ganster, Hamburger Containerboard CEO, and Rottneros  CEO Lennart Eberleh.

Reference information: 

The Fastmarkets RISI XXII European Conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 9-11 March 2020 and gathered together pulp and paper industry professionals and experts from different countries. The Conference discussed global trends, outlook and challenges faced by the global pulp and paper market. The forum was attended by more than 250 participants. 

Fastmarkets RISI is the definitive source of commodity data and insights for the forest products industry. The European CEO of the Year Award is nominated annually by a group of investment analysts, industry consultants and commentators covering the European and global pulp and paper industry.

ILIM Group is the largest manufacturer of pulp, paper and board products in Russia, and one of the largest suppliers of softwood pulp to China. According to Ilim Group's annual report under Russian statutory accounting standards, its revenue in 2018 increased by 40% to reach RUB 155.7 billion, and net profit totaled RUB 35.6 billion. Production volumes reached 3.4 million tons. 

Ksenia Sosnina was appointed CEO of JSC Ilim Group in 2016.  Before assuming the position as the CEO, she was a board member of Ilim Group and President of International Paper Russia.