Corporate veteran to head Clearwater Paper board

The chief operating officer of Land O'Lakes Businesses has been named the chairwoman of Clearwater Paper's board of directors, effective Jan. 1. Beth Ford will replace Boh Dickey, who is retiring from the board in May, according to a Monday announcement.

Ford joined the board in 2013. She oversees Land O'Lakes' multi-billion-dollar U.S. businesses, including Purina Animal Nutrition, Land O'Lakes Dairy and Winfield United, which provides crop inputs and agricultural technology.

She previously has worked for International Flavors and Fragrances, Mobil Corp., PepsiCo and Pepsi Bottling Company, and Hachette Book Group and Scholastic.

Once Ford assumes her new role, Clearwater Paper will be one of a handful of publicly traded companies in the United States with women serving as the CEO and non-executive board chairwoman, according to a Clearwater Paper news release. The company's president and CEO is Linda Massman.

Dickey, who is in his early 70s, was a member of Clearwater Paper's original board of directors when the business was founded in 2008, after Potlatch Corp. spun off most of its manufacturing operations into the new company.

Dickey retained his seat on the board of Potlatch after the spinoff. He was the only person to be on the board of Clearwater Paper and Potlatch. He retired from the Potlatch board in 2016. Prior to that, he was president, COO and a board member of SAFECO from 1996 until his retirement from those roles in 2001.

Massman is the only member of the nine-member board who is an employee of Clearwater Paper, though all board members are compensated. Ford's annual compensation for 2016 was $192,417, while Dickey's was $226,417, according to Clearwater Paper's proxy statement.

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Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.