James H. Bud McKeown Jr

A 28-year employee of International Paper Company and Evergreen Packaging Pine Bluff Mill, and 9 years at Clearwater Paper Company’s, Cypress Bend Mill Power/Recovery/Utilities Department. Hardworking Utility Worker with resourceful approach to handling all Utilities Department needs. Good multitasking, prioritization and organizational skills. Over the past 35 years working in power/recovery for three different companies, I have shown the ability to work well with others and gained substantial knowledge of power/recovery operations and overall mill operations. Working as the Process Manager and Team leader, I have been responsible for Power Plant Operations and Personnel on shift and have proven the ability to be a problem solver and troubleshooter. During 2022 and 2023, I continue to demonstrate my breadth of knowledge and functional flexibility within the Utilities Department as I worked in multiple department positions in the recent operating years, handling the duties of day supervisor, maintenance coordinator, assistant superintendent and Superintendent. In addition to the operations roles, I have taken a lead role in administrative duties related to oversight of the lockout system, being a department and mill wide SME on lockout software system TK Pro. I am also a KRONOS superuser, providing training and assistance to both department and mill wide users. I have been involved in decisions related to workforce planning and training, have been heavily involved in the management and reliability of the mill fire water system this year and have become the primary contact for internal communication between maintenance and engineering on repair planning as well as external communication with FM Global, our insurance carrier, regarding system operating status/impairments, audit findings and such. I am experienced in SAP (purchase requisitions and work orders), JD Edwards (purchase requisitions and work orders), I work in EXL Client workflow approving to pay invoices to vendors and contractors on projects assigned to me, Process book (data trending), Parkview (data trending), Process Map, Microsoft Excel, Word, Power Point, and Visio. I coach and train employees every day in safe work practices and in safety behavior, I strive to make the work environment safer, to operate our equipment environmentally compliant while improving the culture of safety and environmental responsibility, while building trusting, honest relationships with all co-workers, I was the first Cypress Bend employee going through the GSTD white belt project to complete 3 GSTD’s. I have helped develop the setup, training and use of TK PRO lockout software for Clearwater paper and the Cypress Bend Mill. I created several training modules for TK PRO that have been used corporate wide in the mills utilizing TK PRO as their lockout software. I work with maintenance, engineering, and vendors in day-to-day problem solving, process improvement activities as well as a resource and manager of projects. I believe that my straightforward approach and positive attitude gained over 35+ years of industry experience, having seen and learned a lot and actually done all of the jobs involved in keeping a Utilities Department running gives me the ability to mentor others with a solid foundation of knowledge to reference and gives me the experience and knowledge needed for the Utilities Superintendent position.

I served 22-years as a National Registered EMT/Haz-mat technician/fire fighter with the Pine Bluff mill’s emergency response team (ERT), and as a designated mill wide incident commander for the ERT. I have had extensive training in incident command for emergency response as well as being a DOT certified Hazardous Material Technician Specialist. I have served my community as President and business manager of Clear Creek Volunteer Fire Department, with the responsibility of budget matters, coordination of training, grant writing and implementation of successful grants. I am certified by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management as a National Incident Management System, and Incident Command facilitator and use Microsoft PowerPoint for presentation of those courses. I have served on the Drew County Local Emergency Planning Committee, which is responsible for preplanning and coordination of county resources in case of large-scale emergencies.