ATLANTA, May 8, 2026 /3BL/ - Georgia-Pacific announced that Nick Trainer has been named vice president, market sales of GP PRO. In this role, Trainer will lead market sales strategy and execution, strengthen customer partnerships, and drive growth across the business.
"I'm excited to have Nick rejoin the Georgia-Pacific family. His strong leadership experience and deep knowledge of our industry will help us continue to deliver superior value to our customers," said Nate Medina, senior vice president and general sales manager, GP PRO.
Georgia-Pacific named Nick Trainer vice president, market sales of GP PRO. Trainer will lead market sales strategy and execution, strengthen customer partnerships, and drive growth across the business.
Prior to rejoining GP PRO, Trainer served as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Handgards, a manufacturer and supplier of foodservice disposable products focused on food safety and cross-contamination prevention.
During his 18-year tenure at Georgia-Pacific, Trainer held several leadership roles, including Southern regional sales manager and vice president and general manager of the GP PRO Tissue and Wiper business. In that role, he drove significant growth of the Compact tissue business, led the launch of multiple new products across categories, and advanced key investments in manufacturing. He also helped shape category strategy, strengthen customer engagement, and accelerate innovation across GP PRO.
Earlier in his career, Trainer held sales leadership roles at Unisource and Kimberly-Clark.
In addition, Ryan Elwart has been named senior vice president, sales and innovation for GP Foodservice Solutions, the company's new business that includes Dixie® and Anchor Packaging. In this role, Elwart will lead transformation efforts for Georgia-Pacific's away-from-home foodservice disposables — driving growth across categories and bringing together the Georgia-Pacific and Anchor sales teams.
Georgia-Pacific today named Ryan Elwart senior vice president, sales and innovation for GP Foodservice Solutions. Elwart will lead Georgia-Pacific’s away-from-home foodservice disposables initiatives.
"I'm delighted to have Ryan rejoin the GP family. His strong commercial leadership experience, deep understanding of our customers and industry, and proven ability to drive growth at scale position him to make an immediate impact," said Chris Warburton, chief customer officer of Georgia-Pacific's Consumer Products group. "He will play a key role in accelerating our foodservice business by strengthening customer partnerships and advancing innovative solutions to better serve a growing market."
Prior to joining GP Foodservice Solutions, Elwart served as Group President at Mativ, where he oversaw multiple categories and segments across the business. He led efforts to strengthen company performance, build commercial capabilities, and unlock strategies to drive growth with customers across the marketplace. He also led the Sustainable & Adhesive Solutions business unit, driving alignment across sales, marketing, sales operations, and research and development to improve execution, drive innovation and scale best practices.
Elwart previously spent 16 years with Georgia-Pacific, including serving as chief customer officer for the Consumer Products Group. In that role, he led a combined sales and commercial capability organization spanning retail and B2B sales, eCommerce, training, customer planning, category management, and sales strategy across the company's retail and commercial businesses.
Earlier in his career, Elwart held leadership roles at PepsiCo and Hormel Foods and has extensive experience across customer- and consumer-facing businesses.
About Georgia-Pacific
Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, cellulose and building products. Our familiar consumer brands include Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Dixie®, enMotion®, Quilted Northern®, Sparkle® and Vanity Fair®.
Georgia-Pacific has long been a leading supplier of building products to lumber and building materials dealers and large do-it-yourself warehouse retailers. Its Georgia-Pacific Recycling subsidiary is among the world's largest traders of paper, metal and plastics. The company operates more than 150 facilities and employs approximately 30,000 people directly and creates more than 80,000 jobs indirectly. For more information, visit: gp.com/about-us. For news, visit: news.gp.com. Follow Georgia-Pacific on LinkedIn, Meta, Instagram, X and YouTube.
About GP PRO
Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, cellulose and building products. The company operates approximately 150 facilities and employs approximately 30,000 people directly and creates nearly 80,000 jobs indirectly. GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific, manufactures and sells well-known brands like enMotion®, Compact®, Angel Soft® Professional Series, Brawny®, Dixie®, Pacific Blue™ and the KOLO® Smart Monitoring System. GP PRO products meet restroom, foodservice, and break room needs for office buildings, healthcare, foodservice, high traffic, lodging, retail, and education facilities, plus a wide range of industrial and manufacturing facilities in North America. For more information, visit: gppro.com.
