How Outside Ceos Like One Dubbed ‘chainsaw’ Drove The Maine Paper Industry’s Collapse

In 1994, Al Dunlap took over as CEO of Scott Paper, which owned paper mills in Winslow, Skowhegan and Westbrook. Nicknamed “Chainsaw” because of his ruthless approach to cutting jobs, Dunlap created $6.3 billion for the company’s shareholders and netted $120 million for himself in just two years on the job. But “success for shareholders meant devastation for workers and communities,” wrote University of Southern Maine economics professor Michael Hillard in his new history of the Maine paper industry, “Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine’s Mighty Paper Industry.” Under Dunlap, a third of Scott Paper’s 25,000 employees lost their jobs.