DS Smith appoints sales director for paper in Europe and North America

Johan van Baarle will be responsible for the division’s paper sales across the two countries, managing 5 million tons of paper annually.

DS Smith, London, has announced the appointment of Johan van Baarle as sales director of its Paper Division, reporting to Niels Flierman, managing director for Paper. 

Van Baarle joins DS Smith from Cargill, the global food, agricultural, finance and industrial products provider, where he has worked since 2003. During his time at Cargill, Van Baarle held a series of senior customer-focused and sales manager roles. Most recently, he was sales director of global accounts in Cargill’s Cocoa & Chocolate division based in the Netherlands.

Van Baarle will be tasked with further growing DS Smith’s paper sales across Europe and the U.S. and managing the service portfolio to customers.

“I am excited to contribute to DS Smith’s purpose to redefine packaging for a changing world. I look forward to sharing my experience with the global teams to focus on continued growth by understanding and meeting the demands of our customers. These demands are shifting towards lighter but stronger paper that is both innovative and sustainable in production and product,” Van Baarle says.

“I welcome Johan to the team and look forward to him bringing some of his extensive experience to the role," Flierman says. "He joins at an exciting time as DS Smith, along with the whole paper packaging sector, has an opportunity to play a huge role in replacing hard-to-recycle and single-use plastics. Making sure we can provide the right packaging papers to our customers is a key part of ensuring we realize that opportunity."