Frank McShane is out as president of Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging as of Tuesday, but company officials declined to say whether he departed voluntarily or was forced out.

More details about the change in leadership will be released Wednesday morning, company spokeswoman Laura Prisc said.

“We wish him well,” she said.

A message left at McShane’s home was not returned.

McShane started at Fibre in 2004 as the senior vice president for supply chain management while the company was still under public ownership managed by the Wollenberg family.

After the company was sold to Toronto-based Brookfield Management Associates in April 2007, McShane was named chief operating officer of the mill. He was named Longview Fibre president in June 2008.

Hugh Sutcliffe, managing partner for Brookfield Management Associates, said Tuesday evening he couldn’t comment until Fibre employees had been informed. No immediate announcement was made about McShane’s replacement.

McShane was slated to take over as voluntary chairman-elect of the Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce in 2010, said Rick Winsman, chamber president. McShane attended a chamber meeting Tuesday morning and gave no indication he was leaving Fibre, Winsman said.

McShane participated, by phone, in a Daily News tour of the Longview mill site last week. He and other Fibre officials touted investments the company is making to make the mill more efficient and competitive.

Fibre has shed hundreds of jobs since Brookfield bought it out in an attempt to turn the perennially money-losing paper mill into a success.