About Our Team
Advisors
Wayne Nystrom
A founding partner of NLK Consultants (NLK), an international P&P consulting engineering company that was formed in 1979. Prior to the formation of NLK, Wayne worked for various pulp & paper mills and as a process specialist for a major consulting engineering firm.
Wayne Lee
Wayne Lee is another of the founding partners of NLK. Wayne specialized in many phases of the pulp & paper industry, including market studies, engineering, project & construction management, and start-up assistance.
Principals
Gordon Floe
Gordon has broad industry exposure with over 30 years experience in the pulp & paper, chemical and capital equipment sectors. Experience highlights include roles in pulp mill start-up and production management, corporate planning, industrial marketing of products and services, including commodity and specialty chemicals as well as capital equipment and consulting services. Gordon was part of NLK’s strategic analysis and market research group focusing largely on pre-investment studies. Gordon is active in strategic studies involving competitive cost and economic analysis as well as due diligence and asset viability assessments.
Kevin Riemer
Kevin has over 30 years of experience in the pulp & paper and energy industries; with emphasis on business development, strategic planning, project management, and process design. Kevin managed the Montreal arm of NLK’s strategic planning group. He has managed projects and studies encompassing numerous Energy, pulp, and papermaking technologies. Kevin has led several expansion efforts into new geographic markets.
Senior Associates
Walter Vail
Paper/packaging market expert
Walter has over 40 years of experience in sales, marketing, and product development of printing & writing papers, including paper mill acquisitions and capital investments and improvements. Additionally he is involved in the marketing of domestic and international packaging and label paper products to Fortune 500 companies, and aligned printers and converters. He has strong knowledge of the specialty paper & board industry including manufacturing capabilities, market opportunities, competitive pricing, and cost bench-marking.
Andrew Scott
Finance
Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the investment industry raising funds, providing M&A advice and other expert advice/testimony to a broad range of clients. He spent over 10 years as a hi-tech executive, as the CEO of one of the fastest growing hi-tech companies in North America. Andrew was regional head of investment banking for Wood Gundy/CIBC World Markets for 10 years (5 on the east coast and 5 in BC). He has been involved in raising over $5B in a broad range of instruments including common and preferred shares, long-term debt, bank debt, venture capital, merchant banking, mezzanine financing, hybrid securities and trust units. He has also been involved in multiple M&A transactions, including hostile takeover defenses. Andrew has worked with many of the forest companies in BC.
Sandy Fleming
EPC Advisor
Sandy Fleming has over 40 years’ experience in Project and Engineering Management, including roles as Engineer, Owner, Contractor and/or Lender’s Representative. Sandy has extensive expertise in Risk Management, Design Build and EPC Contract services. In addition, he has negotiated and managed various forms of contracts including: Firm Price, Fee for Service, Design-Supply, Engineer-Procure-Construct, Target Price and Guaranteed Maximum Price. Sandy has successfully participated in heavy industry projects for the pulp & paper, biomass power, LNG, chemical, and solid wood sectors.
Rinus Jellema
Steam and power
Rinus has more than 40 years experience in pulp and paper industry progressing through various levels of operating and maintenance functions in the utilities area. He has 15 years in senior operations roles at Catalyst Paper’s Powell River and Crofton BC pulp & paper mill complexes and Harmac’s Pacific Pulp Mill in Nanaimo BC. Past chairman of Western Canada Black Liquor Recovery Boiler Advisory Committee (BLRBAC). and a member of the steering committee. Rinus is on the BC Safety Authority Boiler Technology Advisory committee representing large Industry.
Gerry Mittet
Dr. Mittet has more than 30 years of consulting engineering experience in the pulp & paper, wood products, food processing, petroleum refining and biofuels industries. His early work experience was concentrated in the areas of energy and water conservation. He has since participated in numerous process optimization and design projects, most recently in the renewable energy field. Gerry has also developed expertise in the application of advanced process control systems, and presented papers on control of causticizing plants and brown stock washers in pulp & paper mills.
Mike Zabori
Process Expert
Mike has over 30 year experience as a process expert in the pulp & paper, industrial chemicals, mining and oil and gas sectors.
P&P areas: Bleaching chemical process specialist, chem.prep, causticizing, lime kiln, utilities, effluent treatment.
Industrial chemicals: Manufacture, treatment and handling of industrial chemicals, revamping of chemical plants, mainly electrolytic plant conversions from mercury/diaphragm to membrane.
Mining: Process engineer in an integrated nickel plant (mine, refinery, electrolysis, by-products, effluents).
Others: Potable and waste water treatment, environmental, oil and gas pipeline design.
Ted St John
Ted has over 30 years of experience, and is a proven operations and management executive who has been successful in building high performance teams and leading sophisticated organizations, including Pulp &Paper companies, equipment manufacturing companies and engineering firms. A strategic thinker with a clear sense of purpose and urgency when faced with diverse situational challenges during periods of both declining markets and rapid growth. Ted is skilled at establishing operational excellence within culturally diverse environments, translating conceptual models into growth strategies and planning/executing multifaceted initiatives designed to improve sales revenues, productivity improvement and EBITDA.
As well, the expertise Ted has acquired with various manufacturing companies provides a deep understanding of equipment and installation opportunities.
Joe Boyko
Paper Machine, Business Specialist
Building on an academic background in chemical engineering and business administration Joe has devoted over 40 years to the pulp and paper industry. He has worked in operations management, project engineering, and business analysis. Joe specializes in technical and economic analysis for: pre-project studies, strategic and capital planning, asset acquisition, and business restructuring. He has been involved in many projects worldwide in various capacities.
Mike Jackson
Mechanical pulping and fiber analysis.
Michael Jackson has over 40 years experience in the pulp and paper industry in the areas of mechanical pulping and papermaking. After working as a research physicist, first at STFI in Stockholm and later at MacMillan Bloedel in Vancouver, he was technically involved in the sale of all Sunds Defibrator high yield plants in North America and some in other parts of the world during the period 1979 – 1996, initially as Technical Director and from 1984 as Vice President of Research and Development. His specific fields of expertise are in the areas of high yield pulping technology and printing paper quality where he has worked extensively on process research and development to optimize the response of a wide range of softwood and hardwood species to various high yield pulping processes.
Rick C. van Lee
Kraft, dissolving and mechanical pulping process specialist.
Rick has over 40 years experience in the pulp and paper industry including design, construction, start-up, and operations covering all aspects and departments of the mill. He has participated in the design of the world’s largest Kraft pulp mills as well as optimization, troubleshooting and modernization of existing mills. He is heavily involved in development of new technologies, and renewable energy and their industrial application.
R.J. (Bob) Milbourne
Bob has extensive experience as a Senior Executive, Director, and Advisor with corporations and public sector agencies in the metals, forest products, energy, and consulting engineering sectors. Bob has a long history, across Canada, of developing and implementing innovative strategies and solutions to improve workplace performance including labour/management collaboration. He also has significant regulatory and compliance expertise in the health, safety and environmental fields, as well as service as a Commissioner with both the BCUC and BC Securities Commissions.
Dr. Mahmood Ebadian
Biomass, Bioenergy & Biofuel Supply Chain Specialist
Mahmood has 10 years of experience in modeling, analyzing and optimizing logistics and supply chain networks for various biomass, bioenergy and biofuel projects in the US and Canada. He has evaluated and optimized supply chain networks for various types of bio-feedstocks including agricultural residues (e.g. corn stover and wheat straw), dedicated energy crops (e.g. miscanthus and willow), forest residues, wood pellets, sugarcane residues, oilseed crops and municipal solid waste. These supply chain networks were developed and evaluated for demonstration and commercial scale bioenergy and biofuel projects including cellulosic ethanol, renewable diesel, biojet, electricity and heating.