Matti Rantanen has been appointed as the new managing director of the European Panel Federation (EPF), after long serving MD Clive Pinnington’s decision to step down and pursue new opportunities.
Mr Rantanen, currently director of the European Paper Packaging Alliance (EPPA), will take up his new functions with EPF on May 5. This will allow for a transition from Mr Pinnington, who will leave EPF at the end of June 2025.
In a letter to EPF members announcing the news, Pablo Figueroa López, EPF chairman, said Mr Pinnington, 59, joined EPF in 2015 after a career in business, culminating in a role as Senior Vice-President for a multinational adhesives and resins company supplying to the wood-based panels sector.
“Merging the tools of industry with advocacy, he has been able to deliver success in his 10 years at EPF through focus, target setting and a results-oriented culture,” said Mr Figueroa López.
“He leaves EPF on his request to pursue new opportunities and to spend more time with his family in London.”
Finnish national Mr Rantanen, 40, brings experience in trade associations (he was Managing Director of FEPE, the Federation of Envelopes, light packaging, and e-commerce packaging before joining EPPA) and, before that, in politics (including advice to the then Prime Minister Party of Finland on international relations and in co-operation with the European and Nordic political organisations) since graduating with an MBA from Turku University of Applied Sciences.
He is married with two children and has lived in Brussels since 2014.
EPF represents €25bn in turnover and 100,000 jobs in the wood-based panel sector, a role model industry in the circular bioeconomy.
