Raleigh, North Carolina-August 27, 2002 --(PRNewswire)-The Rethink and Discovery sessions compose a "Thought-Leadership Program" that is designed to share business and technological views which help clarify understandings and stimulate an industry-wide change and transformation process for the pulp and paper industry. The plan is to host three sessions of the Rethink and Discovery program each year. Different panels of distinguished academic, business, and industry leaders will lead the sessions. Each will present informative and provocative views to help stimulate and guide the discovery of needed industry changes in education, business, and technology.

This Rethink and Discovery III session will be the third in the series of discussions this year that are intended to help clarify better how the industry should redefine its core operating approaches and technologies and get to the root of the industry's financial problem. Fifteen years ago, the forest products industry comprised 3% of the S&P 500. Today, the entire paper industry is 0.6% of the S&P 500 and declining. According to Jim McNutt, Executive Director of the Center for Paper Business and Industry Studies (CPBIS), "Industry leaders are mindful of the issues and the need for fundamental change and transformation of the industry, but the problems and their needed solutions relate to the old adage of trying to change a flat tire while continuing to ride in the race."

CPBIS, in partnership with the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) and the North Carolina State University's (NCSU's) Pulp & Paper Foundation, will host this third "Rethink and Discovery" program at the NCSU Pulp & Paper Foundation's Annual (2002) Conference in Raleigh, N.C. on October 10, from 1:30 to 5:45 PM Eastern Time. The program will be simultaneously Web-broadcasted Live over the Internet to facilitate interactive participation by paper industry professionals worldwide. To register for the FREE Webcast, please go to:
http://www.ipst.edu/news_events/webcast/rethinkIII.html

Rethink and Discovery III will focus on innovation and industry training and learning issues. Dr. Richard B. Phillips, Senior Vice President of Technology at International Paper will give the keynote address at Rethink and Discovery III. His address will focus on the realities of the role of off shore new capacity expansion and the implications for North America Producers. Dr. Phillips has been with International Paper almost 30 years. His assignments with IP have largely been in technical services, engineering, and research and development.
The keynote address will be followed by two panel sessions:

• The role of innovations for the industry -- some product oriented and some learning oriented, and
• The State of Corporate Learning & Training.

The first Rethink & Discovery program Beyond Today's Paper Machine was Web-broadcast from Paper Summit 2002 held in March at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Looking at gaps, needs and barriers in the technology and business-management arenas for the paper industry, the first program had some 150 conference attendees. The broadcast attracted interactive participation from 36 other multi-participant locations around the world and included real-time questions and views submitted to the panelists from Finland, Brazil, England, Spain, Mexico, and the U.S.

Rethink and Discovery II focused on Division and Mill Level operations management issues. It was held at PIMA's 83rd Annual International Management Conference held June 19-21, 2002 in San Francisco, California. There were two panel sessions, one with the recent past, current, and incoming PIMA Presidents, and one with Seven Mill Level Management leaders. More information on the previous sessions is available at: http://www.cpbis.gatech.edu/news_events/index.htm.