Industry Veteran Kevin Kwilinski Appointed CEO of Fort Dearborn

Kevin Kwilinski

ELK GROVE, Ill. — May 8, 2017 — Fort Dearborn Company, a leading North American supplier of high-impact prime labels for consumer goods, today announced the appointment of Kevin Kwilinski as CEO. Kwilinski, former CEO of Paperworks Industries, a privately held recycled paperboard packaging company, assumes leadership responsibilities from Jim Buzzard, who will resume his role as non-executive chairman of Fort Dearborn’s board of directors.

“Kevin brings more than two decades of experience in the global packaging industry and a track record of developing and executing successful growth strategies,” says Chairman Jim Buzzard. “His professional experience exemplifies Fort Dearborn’s core values of customer intimacy, financial discipline and a performance-driven culture, and I am confident he will help Fort Dearborn become the leading North American prime label supplier.”

Commenting on his new role, Kwilinski notes, "I am excited to lead Fort Dearborn through its next stage of growth and look forward to helping the company continue to deliver best-in-class value to customers. Fort Dearborn is poised to pursue strategic initiatives, including attracting and retaining top talent and pursuing additional growth through existing and new customers as well as strategic acquisitions.”

Prior to joining Fort Dearborn, Kwilinski spent more than 20 years in the global packaging industry, most recently as CEO of Paperworks Industries, a privately held recycled paperboard packaging company. At Paperworks, he guided the company’s growth by supporting an aggressive go-to-market strategy and simultaneously implemented continuous improvement processes that resulted in a significant improvement in product quality, customer service levels and customer satisfaction.

Prior to Paperworks, Kwilinski served as CEO of Portola Packaging, a global food and beverage rigid packaging company. Under his leadership, Portola experienced rapid growth through new product development, market share gain and acquisitions. Before joining Portola, he was senior VP of supply chain for Graphic Packaging, a $4 billion global paperboard packaging company with responsibility for sales, operations and inventory planning, continuous improvement and acquisition integration.

Source: Fort Dearborn.

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