OREANDA-NEWS.  March 19, 2013. RusForest AB appoints Anton Bogdanov as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective immediately, as the company said in a press release received by Lesprom Network.

Anton Bogdanov is a seasoned Russian forestry executive. He was most recently CEO of Nova Management Group, which operates Lesresurs, a Russian forestry company in Eastern Siberia with 372,000 cubic meters of annual allowable cut (“AAC”) and 170,000 cubic meters of annual sawnwood capacity. Lesresurs is one of the largest Russian suppliers of sawnwood to Japan.

Anton Bogdanov replaces Peter Nilsson, the former COO and Director of Sales and Production for RusForest. Peter Nilsson will remain an employee of RusForest until the Company’s Annual General Meeting on May 15, 2013, at which time Vostok Nafta intends to propose Peter’s appointment to the Board of Directors.

Garrett Soden, RusForest’s CEO, commented, “I am pleased to welcome Anton to the RusForest management team following bondholder and shareholder approval of our pending transaction with Nova Capital. Anton brings significant local execution capability to RusForest in order to accelerate our turnaround and to help us access higher value sawnwood markets like Japan. Peter has been key to consolidating our operations and will provide valuable continuity on our Board long-term.”

RusForest is a publicly-traded Swedish forestry company operating in Eastern Siberia and the Arkhangelsk region of Russia.