SMART Papers Names Barry Shapiro Senior Account Manager for Paper Merchant Sales, Metro New York Region

Shapiro will work with customers throughoutNew York City, North and Central New Jersey,Long Island,Westchester County andFairfield County, Connecticut. He is based inNewtown, PA, and reports to Don Butts, Vice President Sales-Merchant Business, for SMART Papers.

Shapiro, a 15-year paper industry veteran who most recently was a top sales executive at Mohawk Fine Papers, will help SMART Papers expand sales of the company's environmentally preferable premium cast-coated and writing, text and cover brands. Shapiro will work with paper merchant management, sales and specification teams.

SMART Papers,North America's largest independent manufacturer and marketer of premium coated and uncoated printing papers, is currently building a new energy facility that will make all of the company's products fully carbon neutral and fossil fuel free by late 2009. SMART Papers has the largest selection of Forest Stewardship Council-certified printing paper brands.

"Barry has strong relationships with key merchant customers," said Butts. "His solid relationships will strengthen our alliances between merchants, printers and designers throughout theNew York-New Jersey-Connecticut areas."

"SMART Papers is poised for strong growth because of the quality of their offering and their increasingly unmatched environmental positioning," said Shapiro. "There's growing demand from merchants and their customers for premium, environmentally responsible printing papers."

Shapiro comes to SMART Papers after more than eight years with Mohawk. He began in 2001 as District Sales Manager of Metro New York and held a variety of increasingly senior positions there, most recently as Senior Regional Manager of theNew York Metro and Mid-Atlantic Regions.

Prior to joining Mohawk, Shapiro was a District Sales Manager at Williamhouse'sUnion, NJ headquarters. He began his career in the paper business as an Account Manager for Old Colony Envelope Co., now owned by National Envelope.

Shapiro holds degrees from Trenton State College and Temple University in Philadelphia. He is also a professional jazz trombonist, once working with the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. Shapiro is a member of the National Paper Trade Association (NPTA) and the Paper Club ofNew York.

About SMART Papers

Hamilton, Ohio-based SMART Papers is the largest North American manufacturer and marketer of environmentally responsible, premium cast-coated, matte-coated and uncoated text, cover and writing papers. Used primarily in offset and digital printing, the papers are marketed to paper distributors, printers, designers, specialty converters and consumers inNorth America, Europe andAsia.

Brands include Kromekote(R), Knightkote(R) Matte, SMART Digital(TM), Pegasus(R), Carnival(R), Synergy(R), Passport(R), Genesis(R), Magna Carta(R), SMART Brights(R), Feltweave(R), Nekoosa(R) Linen, Nekoosa(R) 25% Cotton, Nekoosa(R) Bond, Skytone(R), Solutions(R) and Proterra(R).

By late 2009, the company'sHamilton manufacturing center will produce all of its papers using 100% cellulosic biomass, primarily tree, yard and wood waste. This will eliminate the use of fossil fuels and make all papers fully carbon neutral. All pulp is certified by one or more of the following third-party organizations: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). Many of the papers contain up to 100% post-consumer fibers and all are chlorine free.

SMART Papers supplies branded and specialty papers for a wide range of applications including corporate brochure and identity programs, annual reports, consumer labels and tags, high-end consumer packaging, stationery, greeting cards, invitations with matching envelopes, direct mail, security papers and gift wrap. Please visit www.smartpapers.com, call 800-443-9773, or contact your local paper merchant for more information. Customer service is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Customers may also order papers in any quantity at smartpapersstore.com.

SOURCE SMART Papers

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