Catrin Gustavsson: A woman with a plan
Perhaps we should say “a woman with several plans”: Catrin Gustavsson is our new Business Area President for Innovation. Working with Cell, Wood, Building Systems and Skog, her role involves supporting the Divisions in a variety of ways, from process optimization and pulp quality to developing new business areas and products. As you can imagine, she has a full diary.
“Innovation is a crucial area for any company seeking to stay ahead in its field,” Gustavsson says. “Sometimes we are seen as a function within the Group, sometimes a business area. Innovation is about investing for the future, it’s not an area seeking quick gains, quite the opposite.”
“One of my jobs for Södra Cell will be looking at the whole value chain and seeing where we can add even more value, increase competence and develop our sustainability credentials yet further. How can we work more closely with our customers on their project ideas to add value together? Initially, it’s often a question of finding the right people to talk to each other.
“I’m lucky to have a company behind my job which sees the value in investing in R&D and business development. Södra Innovation is currently expanding its resources, recruiting for several new positions, including business development and specialists within biofuels, dissolving pulp and OnceMore®. I’m also interested to see further cross fertilization of ideas and more partnerships to find new fibre-based solutions. Together we need to think of new ways to replace plastics with fibre for future generations.
“As for the EU’s plan to move to a circular economy, it’s not ‘If’, but ‘when’. We all need to look at our material flows, to adopt new ways of thinking, and we’re here to help our customers do the same.”
Watch the interview from the end of 2020 when Catrin Gustavsson talked about how we work with Innovation.
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Subjects: Pulp
