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From left to right are, top row, Robert "Buck" Hernandez, Ryan Iachini and David Robertson. Bottom row, left to right, Charlie Michael, Ed Shively and Gene Wright.

WestRock Announces Position Changes At Its Covington Mill

 
Covington, VA (Nov. 7, 2016) - WestRock’s Covington mill announces position changes that were internally announced in October.

Roberto "Buck" Hernandez has accepted the position of E&I supervisor. Following a training and rotational period, he will assume responsibilities in the Paper Mill area.

Hernandez served four years in the U.S. Army as a diesel mechanic, and after being honorably discharged, he completed a five-year electrical apprenticeship with the IBEW-NAJTC. Following graduation as a journeyman, he worked as an electrician though the IBEW and was promoted to foreman on several large projects around Miami, Florida. Hernandez accepted a position with Crane America in Charleston, West Virginia, in 2000 and was promoted to service manager in 2007. He returned to Miami in 2008 as an electrical superintendent for Marvelous Electric/IBEW and joined Crane One as a technician in West Virginia in 2012.

Ryan Iachini has accepted the position of process engineer in the Recovery department. He is responsible for the evaporators.

Iachini earned his B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry from Virginia Tech in May 2014. Prior to his employment at WestRock, he was the fuel nozzle repair co-op at GE Energy in Greenville, South Carolina, from August - December 2011 and August - December 2012. Iachini joined WestRock in 2014 as an Early Career Development engineer and spent his first rotation at the Covington mill in the Recovery department. He served additional rotational assignments in Logistics and in Evadale.

David Robertson has accepted the position of operations supervisor in the Recovery department. In this role, he is responsible for coordinating department training and manning scheduling, supervising Recovery operations, and assisting in troubleshooting process upsets.

Robertson attended Virginia Western Community College from 1987 -1988 and joined MWV in 1988 as an extra board employee. He accepted the position of laborer in the General Utility department in 1989 and transferred to the Recovery department as a laborer in 1990. In 1993, Robertson became second assistant operator, and in 2005, he became recausticizing operator. He accepted the position of No. 1 recovery unit first operator in 2006 and No. 2 recovery unit first operator in 2007. In 2013, Robertson was promoted to operations coordinator in recovery.

Charlie Michael has accepted the position of quality assurance technician in the Wood department. He is responsible for taking and analyzing chip samples, doing wood quality inspections, sampling and analyzing fuel wood samples, and maintaining equipment.

Michael graduated from Appomattox High School and began his career with MWV in 1997 at the Dillwyn and Buckingham yards where he operated the wood chipper, mobile log stacker, and knuckleboom loader, and performed maintenance on those machines. In 2002, Michael moved to the Cascade chipyard as a scaler and acted as a liaison between MWV and contractors. Most recently, he was a wood buyer and scaler in the Wood department, a position he accepted in August 2013.

Ed Shively has been promoted to process control supervisor. In this position, he is responsible for process control and measurement systems reliability mill-wide. Shively will continue with his role as electrical design supervisor and will manage capital projects for the Covington mill and Low Moor converting plant.

Shively earned his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1985. Upon      graduation, he worked as a maintenance engineer at RJ Reynolds Packaging Manufacturing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He began his career with MWV in October 1990 as an engineer in the Electrical department. He was a member of the No. 2 Paper Machine start-up team in 1992 - 1993, and from 1995 - 1999, he served as training coordinator for electrical apprentices. Shively worked on the SAP plant maintenance team from 2001 - 2003, and in 2005, he joined the Engineering department as a senior electrical project engineer. In 2011, he accepted the position of electrical design supervisor.

Gene Wright has accepted the position of lead engineer on No. 2 Paper Machine. In this position, he is responsible for the dry-end process on No. 2 Paper Machine.

Wright obtained an A.A.S. degree in Electronics from DSLCC in 1984 and completed a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from Old Dominion University in 1987. During two summers of college, Wright worked as an intern in the Computer Services department at the Covington mill. Following graduation from ODU, he was employed as a service representative for Virginia Power in Rockbridge County. Wright joined MWV in 1989 as an engineer in Computer Services and accepted the position of computer services project engineer for No. 2 Paper Machine startup in 1992. Wright was promoted to senior engineer in 1995, and in 2010, he accepted the position of process control group leader in E/I/PCS. In 2011, he assumed the role of AMS - Process Controls.
 
 
 

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