DS Smith, a sustainable packaging company, recently announced changes to the management team for its Paper Division, affecting both North America and Europe. Giancarlo Maroto will join DS Smith as the new cluster director for North America and James Walker, who previously held the cluster director role in North America, will become Northern Europe cluster director.

Both roles report to Niels Flierman, managing director for DS Smith Paper, and are focused on growing DS Smith’s paper production and ensuring the delivery of high quality, high performing papers to meet changing demands in packaging and other industry sectors. DS Smith has 16 paper mills across the U.S. and Europe, producing around 5 million tons of paper annually.

Maroto joins the company from Mondi, where he held various executive positions, including managing director of the Sack Kraft Paper business in North America, managing director of the Containerboard business in Turkey and corporate head of Digital Transformation. Based in Atlanta, he will oversee operations at the mills in Riceboro, Ga. and Reading, Pa., as well as the North American recycling and forestry operations.  

“I look forward to focusing on continued growth of the North American team by understanding and meeting the demands of our customers. These demands are increasingly shifting towards more sustainable production, combined with finished paper products that are innovative, high performing and easily recyclable,” Maroto said.

Walker, as Northern Europe cluster director, takes over from Rogier Gerritsen, who recently was announced as the company’s head of recycling. He will be responsible for paper production across some of DS Smith’s largest paper mills in the UK, France and the Netherlands.

“I welcome Giancarlo to the team and look forward to him bringing some of his extensive experience to the role. He joins at an exciting time in the Paper Division, with our focus on innovation in paper production and the increasing opportunity to replace hard to recycle plastics with more sustainable solutions as evidenced through our new partnership with Aquapak,” said Niels Flierman, managing director for DS Smith Paper.