R. Neil King   Education & Qualifications Range of Experience

Specific Experience   Neil's recent experience includes managing the entire IT organization for Scott Paper Limited, ensuring that the delivery of IT services was aligned with and in support of Corporate business objectives.   At Scott, Neil successfully outsourced all tactical IT functions including operations, network, help desk, EDI and software development, reducing IT staffing from 47 to 4 positions. This included responsibility for all aspects of the outsourcing from RFP, through vendor selection and contract negotiation.   Championed and sold the concept and benefit of Enterprise Resource Planning systems, such as SAP, to the executive group and Scott's new owner Kruger Corporation.   Neil negotiated all aspects of the SAP software contract and the contract extensions to the existing outsourcing agreement.   In conjunction with the CFO, developed the high-level ERP project plan, project cost and benefits, created and presented the Capital Appropriation Request for Executive approval.   Recommended specific individuals for senior project positions including the Scott project manager and assisted the project manager in selecting appropriate staff for the remainder of the project team. During the project, Neil monitored team dynamics and recommended personnel changes where required.   Neil assumed the role of Technical Team lead during the project and, in addition, assumed the role of Project Manager during the post implementation phase.   Developed and implemented a distributed development infrastructure, including collaborative tools such as Lotus Notes and Video Conferencing, which allowed the SAP project to be undertaken with four geographically distributed project teams.   Neil conducted Information Technology audits of sister companies Global Tissue LLC in Memphis, Tennessee, Papeles Venezalanos in Venezuela, SA and Papeles Nacionales in Columbia, SA. These audits included assessments of Y2K readiness, infrastructure, security, ERP systems and staffing as well as IT's alignment with Corporate objectives.   Neil was responsible for Scott's Y2K renewal project, including management of the outsourcer and all Y2K related communication with suppliers and customers.   Neil introduced new technologies to Scott where appropriate and of benefit. These included collaborative technologies such as Lotus Notes, NetMeeting and Video Conferencing.   In addition, a technical infrastructure was implemented to support high speed Internet access as well as fully secure, encrypted, high speed remote access to Scott applications from laptops or home office users via dial-up.   Voice over IP was implemented for internal telephone calling by using excess capacity on frame relay WAN services.   Neil was a member of the Due Diligence team for the White Swan tissue mill acquisition. This $130MM tissue operation was successfully integrated into Scott's operation. This required building and staffing an entire Hull, PQ based MIS organization as well as implementing a complete suite of standard Scott software applications in this new manufacturing division.   With TRW Datasystems, Neil designed and managed the implementation of large scale, real-time credit and cheque authorization systems for major Canadian retailers such as Eatons, Hudsons Bay, Sears and Robert Simpsons. These systems included thousands of terminals from coast to coast, supporting inquiry rates as high as 30,000 inquiries per hour at peak shopping times.   to top