OREANDA-NEWS. August 06, 2012. RusForest AB, a Swedish forestry company with operations in Russia, announces the appointment of Garrett Soden as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network.

Garrett Soden joins RusForest from the Lundin family office in Geneva. He has worked with public companies associated with the Lundin family since 2008 and has extensive experience in emerging markets. Mr Soden was previously Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of Etrion Corporation, a renewable energy company listed on Toronto Stock Exchange and NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. He holds a BSc honours degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Martin Hermansson has served as the Company’s President and CEO since June 2010 and was instrumental in building the Company into one of the largest forestry and sawmilling operations in Russia. Mr Hermansson will continue to support the Company in his role as General Director of RusForest Management in Moscow.

Kenneth Eriksson, the Company’s Chairman, commented, “The Board of Directors is pleased to appoint Garrett Soden as CEO. Garrett has considerable management experience in public companies, and he comes on board with a clear mandate to crystallize the significant value in RusForest’s assets. We would like to thank Martin Hermansson for his hard work during a challenging time for the Company.”

RusForest is also pleased to announce the appointment of Kirill Pronin as Chief Financial Officer. Mr Pronin has been interim CFO since March 2012 and was previously employed as a Project Director in RusForest Management in Moscow. Before joining RusForest/Taiga Asset Management in 2008, he worked in Transaction Advisory at the Moscow office of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Vostok Nafta, the Company's largest shareholder, has informed the Board of Directors that it intends to propose the appointment of Garrett Soden to the Board of Directors at the next general meeting of shareholders.