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Originally published by The Commercial Appeal

When Fred Towler was tapped to lead diversity and inclusion efforts for International Paper in November 2018, he didn’t have formal human resources training. Instead, his 30 years with the company had been on the operations side.

Towler was hired in 1987 to work as an information technology analyst.

“If we were going to invest in a new technology, I had to work with the organization to understand the value and justify the value around it and also ensure that we were getting the value as well,” Towler said.

Since then he has worked in just about every department at International Paper — finance, manufacturing, sales and marketing, general management, distribution and, most recently, supply chain.

Still, his new role as chief diversity officer is different. His first step to get ready for it was to talk to people.

“I spent a lot of time talking to our employees,” he said. “Largely because we are a multinational organization, diversity means something different for everybody in every corner of the globe where we operate,” Towler said.

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International Paper Company

International Paper Company

International Paper (NYSE: IP; LSE: IPC) is the global leader in sustainable packaging solutions. With company headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) headquarters in London, UK, we employ more than 65,000 team members and serve customers around the world with operations in more than 30 countries. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Net sales for 2024 were $18.6 billion. In 2025, International Paper acquired DS Smith creating an industry leader focused on the attractive and growing North American and EMEA regions. Additional information can be found by visiting internationalpaper.com

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