Alston D. Correll

A former CEO and chairman of Atlanta-based paper and building materials manufacturer Georgia Pacific. Correll joined the company in 1988 as senior vice president of pulp and printing paper, became president and COO in 1991 and CEO and chairman in 1993. He retired in January 2006 and co-founded Atlanta Equity Investors, LLC.

Correll was born in 1941 in Georgia. He first learned about running a business when, after his father’s death, he went to work for the family business at age 12. He earned masters degrees in paper and pulp technology and in chemical engineering from the University of Maine, then went to work for paper company Weyerhaeuser in 1967 and then for Mead 10 years later.

As head of Georgia Pacific, Correll helped expand the company’s product line from basic forest products into consumer products like toilet paper, in part through the 1999 acquisition of a major paper products distributor, Unisource Worldwide, and the 2000 acquisition of Fort James Corporation, a company that made name-brand paper cups, toilet paper and paper towels.