F2FP | From Forest To Finished Products

Brad Southern

Vice President/General Manager of Siding

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation

Brad Southern, Vice President and General Manager of Siding at Lousiana-Pacific Corporation, has been with LP since 1999. Prior to his current position, Southern was Vice President of Specialty Operations. He began his career with MacMillan Bloedel as a forester and progressed through a variety of jobs in forestry, strategic planning, finance, accounting and plant management. Southern has a BS in Forest Resource and an MS in Forest Resources, both from the University of Georgia.  He will present an overview of LP’s involvement in the forest products industry over the last 10 years and changes experienced during that time.  Southern will also discuss thoughts on current and future trends that will impact the building products industry, including forest land ownership, wood fiber quality trends and overall fiber availability.  Lastly, Southern will discuss LP’s current product offering, their go-to market strategy and their strategy to increase their offering of value-added products.

Dr. Brooks Mendell

President/Founder

Forisk Consulting

Dr. Brooks Mendell is President and Founder of Forisk Consulting, a forest industry, bioenergy and timber market research firm.  Dr. Mendell has over 15 years of operating, research, and consulting experience in forest business and finance.  His experience includes roles in harvest operations and wood procurement with Weyerhaeuser and in management consulting with Accenture. He also speaks professionally on leadership, communication skills and team building.  As a Fulbright Scholar in 2004, Mendell traveled to Uruguay to teach courses on forest finance and risk management in forestry.  Currently, Mendell serves as a Director for two forest industry associations and one timberland investment fund.  Dr. Mendell has published more than 40 articles and two books on topics related to timber and timberland markets, forest business management and operations and communication skills.  Mendell earned his BS and MS degrees at MIT, an MBA at the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in Forest Finance at UGA.

Bryant V. Beadles

President

Balfour Lumber Company

Bryant V. Beadles has a BS in Business Administration from Auburn University as well as a BS in Industrial Engineering Technology from Southern Polytechnic State University.  He is currently the President of Balfour Lumber Company, Vice President of Beadles Lumber Company, and Co-owner of Balfour Pole Company, all of which are involved in purchasing, harvesting, processing and marketing Southern Pine products and by-products.  Beadles is currently Chairman of Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association, a Foundation Board Member of Darton College, and on the Board of Directors of both Brookwood School and John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital.  In the past Beadles has been Chairman of Leadership Georgia, President of Technical College Directors Association, Chairman of Moultrie Technical College, President of Colquitt County Humane Society, on the Board of Directors for Colquitt County United Way, and former Treasurer and Board Member for Moultrie YMCA.

Dr. Chung-yun Hse

Research Wood Scientist

USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station

Dr. Chung-yun Hse is a Research Wood Scientist with the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station in Pineville, Louisiana. Hse’s research activities are directed at adhesion, adhesives, and high performance wood composites.  From 1987 to 1992, he served as the Forest Service representative to evaluate PL-480 projects in tropical forests.  He was also involved in five FAO-United Nations Development Programs in China.  Hse was a central organization force for three very successful international conferences that produced three highly regarded books.  Hse has maintained a productive relationship with Tokyo University, Kyoto University and Kyushu University and also worked closely with the Chinese Academy of Forestry and several universities in China.  The Chinese Ministry of Forestry recently recognized him with an award for International Scientific Exchange and Cooperation.  Hse was awarded the National Certificate of Friendship by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China. He currently serves as a member of the International Advisory Board of Japan Wood Science Journal and on the Editorial Board of the Taiwan Journal of Forest Science.

Darian Yawn

Southeastern Sales Manager

LandMark Systems

Darian Yawn, CF, is the Southeastern Sales Manager for LandMark Systems, a leading provider of forest technology solutions.  He specializes in GPS/Field Inventory hardware, software and training.  Darian received a BS from the Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia in 1992.  Before joining LandMark Systems in 2002, he spent 10 years applying GPS/GIS technology in land management and procurement operations with International Paper and Union Camp Corporation.  He also previously served as the Technical Support Manager for LandMark Systems for five years before venturing into the sales department.

David Garman

Principal

Decker, Garman, Sullivan and Associates, LLC

David Garman is currently a Principal in the consulting firm Decker, Garman, Sullivan and Associates, LLC, with a client base that includes Fortune 500 companies, national laboratories, universities and “greentech” startups.  Garman previously served as the Under Secretary of Energy and the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, having been appointed by the President and unanimously confirmed by the Senate for each.  Prior to his service in the Executive Branch, Garman served two United States Senators and two Senate Committees over the course of two decades.  He was twice awarded the Department of Energy’s highest award, as well as the Charles H. Percy Award for Public Service from the Alliance to Save Energy, the 2005 Energy Efficiency Award from the United States Energy Association and similar awards from the American Jewish Congress, the Electric Drive Transportation Association.  He holds a BA in Public Policy from Duke University, and an MS in Environmental Sciences from Johns Hopkins University.

Gene Wengert

Founder/President

The Wood Doctor’s Rx, LLC

Gene Wengert is Founder and President of his online consulting company, The Wood Doctor’s Rx, LLC, where woodworking professionals can seek answers and share advice on topics such as lumber buying, lumber storage, kiln operation and sawmilling.  As a former professor and extension specialist at Virginia Tech and researcher at the U.S. Forest Products Lab, Wengert teaches more than 30 practical wood processing classes and seminars each year for the wood products industry.  These include sawing, edging, grading, drying, machining and gluing.  Wengert is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He writes articles for three trade magazines and is quite active in writing articles and answering questions on The Wood Doctor’s Web site  www.WoodWeb.com.  Wengert is the author of eight practical books and has published more than 400 articles relating to the wood products industry.

Gregory F. Heck

Principal Research Engineer, Research & Environmental Affairs

Southern Company Services, Inc.

Gregory F. Heck is a Principal Research Engineer in Research and Environmental Affairs at Southern Company Services, Inc where he is responsible for research in industrial electrotechnologies.  Southern Company Services is a part of Southern Company, the Atlanta-based public utility holding company that owns Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power and Gulf Power.  Heck joined Southern Company Services in 1994 and primarily focused on research involving the development of electrotechnologies for industrial applications.  He managed several Pinch Studies that were done in collaboration with major customers of Southern Company, and the Electric Power Research Institute.  Heck has also worked on research projects in the areas of energy system optimization, electrowinning of metal, iron production via electric melting, renewable energy and energy recovery.  Prior to joining Southern Company Services, he spent eight years as a process engineer for Monsanto Company.  He was then a project engineer for Teledyne Brown Engineering, and later for Pitman-Moore.  Heck has published two technical papers on the subjects of process control and water purification.  He has a BS from the University of Michigan and an MS from the University of South Carolina, both in Chemical Engineering.

Jay Galloway

President

Tolleson Lumber Company

Jay Galloway is President of Tolleson Lumber Company, a family-owned business which began in 1919 and is one of the largest independent lumber manufacturers in the south.  Galloway earned his BS in Management from David Lipscomb University-Nashville.  Before becoming President of Tolleson Lumber Company in 2007, Galloway worked in various management positions at Hood Industries, Inc. for 20 years, including Lumber Division Manager and Manufacturing Division Procurement Manager.  Galloway and his wife Renee have been married for 22 years.  They have two children, John Nicks, a sophomore at Faulkner University, and Jessica, a freshman at Faulkner University.

Jeff Wright

Product Development

ArborGen

Jeff Wright earned his PhD in Tropical Forestry from Oxford University.  He has worked for Sappi, a global producer of paper and pulp, in South Africa, as well as Smurfit-Stone, a packaging company, in Latin America. He is currently in Product Development with ArborGen in Summerville, South Carolina.  ArborGen specializes in research, development and commercialization of applications and solutions in tree genetics, including varietal forestry, that improve wood growth and quality for the forest products industry.  ArborGen is known for implementing new technology for sustainable forestry and working toward solutions that improve the productivity of well-managed, working forests to meet the world’s need for wood and wood products.

James G. (Jim) Ewing

Director, Recruitments & Existing Industry Global Commerce Division

Georgia Department of Economic Development

Jim Ewing is Division Director of Recruitment & Existing Industry for the Department of Economic Development (GDEcD).  He develops and implements Georgia’s industrial recruitment and existing industry programs, with emphasis on new industry recruitment, existing industry expansion, and business development.  Ewing came to GDEcD in 1983.  He is a Registered Forester and graduate of the University of Georgia in 1973 and 1977 with degrees in Zoology and Land Management.  After graduation, he worked for the Georgia Forestry Commission as a Management Forester.  From 1981 to 1983, he served as Staff Forester for the Forestry Commission’s Atlanta office.  Ewing worked with the Forestry Commission for six years, where he developed and implemented a successful forest industry-specific marketing and recruitment program.  After 1986, he worked as a Project Manager in the Industry and International Divisions and served in various management positions.  Ewing has been an active member of many national, regional and state professional organizations, including the Georgia Economic Developers Association, the Georgia Forestry Association and the Society of American Foresters.  He is a 1993 alumnus of Leadership Georgia.

John T. Carpenter

President

Forest Products Division, Caterpillar

John T. Carpenter joined Caterpillar in 1984 and started his career in the Peoria based Product Support marketing program followed by several financial marketing positions.  In 1990 he moved to Caterpillar’s Santiago, Chile office to work on South American distribution development. Upon returning to the states in 1993, Carpenter went to the Lafayette, Indiana, Large Engine Center creating an organization to build, own and operate power plants around the world. In 1996, Carpenter moved to Singapore to manage Caterpillar’s Southeast Asia and India Power Systems Divisions. As a part of the Caterpillar Asia management team, Carpenter was involved in market strategy development for the Malaysian, Thai, and Indonesian forestry industries. Carpenter returned to Peoria in 2000 to lead the North American Power Systems sales force, and then moved to the North American Commercial Division’s Central Region Manager position in 2002.  Carpenter was named President of the Forest Products Division in 2005 and currently resides in Caterpillar’s Forest Products Center of Excellence in LaGrange, Georgia.  Carpenter is a 1984 University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, and he completed the Northwestern University-Kellogg Advanced Executive Program in 2000.

John F. Godbee, Jr.

Director of Environmental Services

F&W Forestry Services, Inc.

John F. Godbee, Jr. leads environment-related activities at F&W Forestry Services, Inc., which he joined in 2001 after a distinguished career in industrial forest management at International Paper and Union Camp. While at Union Camp, he served on a pulp and paper industry committee that developed the Sustainable Forestry Initiative®.  At F&W, one of the nation’s oldest and largest forestry management and consulting firms, he has initiated and administered key programs to assist private landowners in the management of their forestlands in a sustainable manner, including Group Certification through the American Tree Farm System®.  Godbee directs F&W’s program for quantifying and marketing carbon sequestered by managed forests that promises new market opportunities for forest landowners while helping combat greenhouse gas pollution of the atmosphere.  In 2004 he provided technical assistance to the Georgia Legislature in developing and passing one of the nation’s first Carbon Registries.  Godbee earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in forest entomology from the University of Georgia.  He is a member of the Georgia Forestry Association and recipient of that group’s Outstanding Service Award in 2001.

Karl N. Brohammer

Director, Advanced Wood Products Laboratory

College of Architecture Georgia Institute of Technology

Karl N. Brohammer is Director of Advanced Wood Products Laboratory (AWPL) at the College of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology. He provides intellectual leadership and operational management to the research center with focal points including education & training, research & demonstration and outreach to both the industrial and academic communities.  The center’s mission is to move the design and production of Georgia’s secondary value added and finished wood products into an internationally competitive position through academic, research and service missions of the College of Architecture in those areas most essential to affecting the technological transformation for the wood products industry.  Brohammer holds degrees in forestry and business from Louisiana Tech. His experience includes agriculture husbandry, industry forest resource management and serving as technical director for a regional trade association. He served in the U.S. Air Force as an aircraft mechanic and currently lives near Grayson, Georgia.

Kenneth J. Meuhlenfeld

Director, Forest Products Development Center

School of Forestry & Wildlife Science Auburn University

Kenneth J. Muehlenfeld is Director of the Forest Products Development Center at the School of Forestry & Wildlife Science at Auburn University.  He earned his BS in Forestry from the University of Missouri and his MS in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Muehlenfeld has 35 years of forest industry experience, including 19 years in his current position. He directs programs aimed at the development of the forest industry in Alabama and provides technical information and analytical assistance to existing and prospective industry regarding technology evaluation, resource requirements and market suitability of new forest business opportunities, including biomass energy projects.  Muehlenfeld has 16 years of experience as an international forest products consultant, specializing in wood resource, solid wood products and biomass energy business studies.  He also has 16 years of previous industrial work experience with International Paper Company, Container Corporation of America, Arrowood Technologies, Inc. and Trus Joist Corporation.  These industry experiences included responsibilities in timberland management, wood procurement, timberland acquisition, tax analysis, wood products manufacturing management, new plant construction, new business start-up and corporate planning.

Michael Steele

Associate Principal

Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting

Michael Steele is Associate Principal of Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting.  He is a 1994 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a degree in International Business.  Upon graduation, Steele began work providing consulting services in South America, including a stint in Chile’s burgeoning forestry sector.  Steele joined Perforex in 2001 and eventually became a partner in July 2006.  Over the years he has worked to identify and implement sustainable changes in many high-volume wood product operations across the continent that have resulted in dramatically improved performance and profitability.  In November 2007 Perforex was sold to Pöyry, the world’s largest forest industry engineering and consulting company, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland.  Now part of Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting’s North American operations, Steele is helping to successfully expand the implementation practice into the Pulp and Paper sector.

Rick Davis

Vice President/Co-Owner

LandMark Systems

Rick Davis is the Vice President and a Co-owner of LandMark Systems.  LandMark specializes in GPS, GIS and Forest Inventory solutions and services for the forest and natural resource industry.  Davis has been with LandMark since 1999 and has participated in all of its profit centers, technical consulting, GPS/GIS mapping services and GPS and forest inventory hardware and software sales.  Currently, he is heading up the company’s initiative to bring solutions for log truck optimization to market.  Davis holds a BS in Forest Resources from the University of Georgia.  Prior to LandMark, Davis worked for T & S Hardwoods out of Milledgeville, Georgia as a forester from 1992 to 1997.  From 1997 to 1999, Davis completed his MBA from Florida State.  In 1997 he also worked as a staff OPS Forester for the Florida Division of Forestry in Tallahassee.  Davis is also a registered forester in Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Ron Barmore

Director of Project Development

Range Fuels, Inc.

Ron Barmore, Director of Project Development for Range Fuels, Inc., leads the company’s efforts in siting, development and permitting of new projects and sourcing of feedstock materials.  The company is building a facility in Soperton, GA, to produce cellulosic ethanol from the sustainable and abundant woody biomass resources of middle Georgia.  Barmore is a member of the Council of Sustainable Biomass Production, serves on the executive committee of the Pine 2 Energy Coalition and is a frequent speaker at Bioenergy conferences on the development of the advanced Biofuels industry.  Barmore has spent the majority of his career developing projects in the alternative energy field, primarily in the waste-to-energy industry.  His career includes six years as Senior Executive of Business Development Efforts for Barlow Projects, Inc. and five years with ABB Resource Recovery Systems as Regional Manager of Business Development.  Barmore began his career with Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc.  He holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Iowa.

Ross Harding

Founder

Verdant Resources LLC/Energy Launch Partners, LLC

Ross Harding has global experience in sales, marketing and business development. With a BS in Chemistry from Queensland University of Technology in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia, an MBA from the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh and studies in Finance at INSEAD in France, Harding is focused on global industrial technology and resource development. During a 12-year career at Calgon Corporation, a subsidiary of Merck based out of Asia, North America, the Middle East and Europe, he built world-wide industrial and municipal water treatment businesses. Harding served as Executive Vice President of Acuity Specialty Products, a leading manufacturer of cleaning and maintenance products, leading their sales, marketing, strategy, R&D, logistic and customer service. He is the founder of clean technology companies Verdant Resources, LLC and Energy Launch Partners, LLC.  He has served as Vice President of the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center and founded the Georgia Biofuels Commercialization Center. Harding is an active member of the Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce Environmental Committee, the Pine to Ethanol Coalition and the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce.

Sun Joseph Chang

Professor, School of Renewable Natural Resources

Louisiana State University Agricultural Center

Sun Joseph Chang is a Professor at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, in the School of Renewable Natural Resources.  In 1972 he earned his Bachelor of Sciences in Forestry from the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, a Master in Forest Sciences from Harvard University in 1975 and a Doctorate degree in Forestry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979.  Chang will be speaking on hardwood sawing optimization based on internal defect scanning of hardwood logs.  His paper describes the progresses in internal defect scanning of hardwood logs over the last 25 years and discusses the current status of hardwood log scanning.  In addition, this paper will show how the TOPSAW software utilizes the log scanning images to obtain the sawing optimization solution to increase sawmill profits.

Ted Pierce

Chief Engineer

Supertrak

Ted Pierce joined Supertrak in 2000 as their Chief Engineer.  Supertrak specializes in off-highway equipment with a full line of excavator, track and rubber-tired, purpose-built mulching tractors ranging from 97 to 450 horsepower.  It is an industry leader in manufacturing custom forestry and vegetation management equipment for nearly 20 years.  Previously, Pierce worked with Timberjack in Product and Sales Management.  He was the General Manager of Carelift Equipment, a Rough Terrain Forklift Manufacturer.  He was also an Application Engineer with Koehring Woodlands Equipment.  He is a Mechanical Engineer and a graduate of the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.  Pierce lives in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Dr. Terry Sellers, Jr.

Consultant and Professor Emeritus of Forest Products

Mississippi State University

Dr. Terry Sellers, Jr., worked for 20 years with Koppers Company in the Unit Structures Division and with Reichhold Chemicals.  He retired from Mississippi State University after 24 years and is currently Professor Emeritus of Forest Products.  He has been an active consultant in five continents for more than 28 years.  Sellers obtained his BS and MS degrees from Auburn University and his Doctoral degree from the University of Tokyo in Japan.  He has published extensive research on adhesives and engineered wood composites and has been a contributing writer for Panel World Magazine.  He is a past President of the Forest Products Society and has been honored by the U.S. Department of Commerce for international standards work, by Shell Oil Company for team research on new adhesives and by the Forest Products Society for service to the profession.  He is listed in various Who’s Who categories in both the U.S.A. and the U.K.

Walter Jarck

President/CEO

TimTek

Walter Jarck attended State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY, and earned his degree in Forestry.  From 1953 to 1957 Jarck served in the U.S. Navy as a Destroyer Officer on the USS Bristol (DD 857).  He went on to work for Caterpillar Tractor Company in Sales Promotion for Logging.  In 1958, he began working for Bowaters Carolina Corporation as a Forest Engineer.  Jarck had a 24-year career at Bowaters, but in 1982, he moved on to Georgia Pacific Corporation as Assistant Vice President Timberlands/Corporate Forester, where he remained for 14 years.  In 1996 Jarck went to the University of Georgia as a Lecturer for the Warnell School of Forestry.  Also in 1996 he co-founded TimTek and became Manager/President/CEO.  During his college and working career Jarck has been very successful in accomplishing the various goals, targets and needs of the logging industry.

William F. Miller

Fiber Logistics Development & Support

F&W Forestry Services, Inc.

William Miller received his Associate degree from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1968. He graduated with a BS degree in Forestry from the University of Georgia in 1970.  After graduation, Miller worked as a Land Management Forester for Union Camp Corporation in Brunswick, Georgia.  He then spent the next 32 years moving around Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina serving in various managerial positions – such as Wood Procurement Manager, Area Superintendent, Director of Sustainable Forestry and Wood Fiber Manager – for Union Camp Corporation, International Paper and Miller Timber & Land Properties.  Presently, Miller manages Fiber Logistics Development and Support for F&W Forestry Services, Inc.  Miller is Georgia Registered Forester #1008.  He is a Board Member of the Georgia Forestry Association and of the Forest Resources Association.  He is also a member of the Society of American Foresters, and a member of the Georgia, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina Forestry Associations, as well as a member of Forest Land Owners Association.

Bill Pennington

Business Development Representative

Processes Unlimited

Bill Pennington is a 1967 graduate of Auburn University with a degree in mechanical engineering.  He has worked as a design engineer, business manager, project manager and technical sales manager.  He is currently employed at Processes Unlimited International (formerly known as Dean Oliver International) as a Project Manager and Sales Executive.  Pennington has been President of the Georgia Engineering Foundation and has held numerous positions in both the Georgia Society of Professional Engineers and the California Energy Commission.  He was named Engineer of the Year in private practice in Georgia in 1993.  Pennington has been involved in the design of numerous industrial projects, but more than half of his career has been in wood and wood products, including plywood, particleboard, OSB, MDF and wood energy.

David H. Williams

President

D.H. Williams & Associates

David Williams was born and raised in Lexington, NC,located 20 miles from High Point, NC, home of the International Home Furnishing Market.  Williams graduated from High Point College (University) in 1970 and is now on the Advisory Board of the Furniture Merchandising Program that is part of the University’s Business Department.  He started his career in the furniture industry in 1976, working in the Sales Department at Burlington House Furniture in Lexington.  After leaving Burlington House, he started a career working with furniture designers, product development people and purchasing agents who were associated with many of the major furniture manufacturers in the U.S., selling components used in the manufacturer of casegoods.  He has been president of D.H. Williams & Associates since 1987.  Williams has been active in the World Future Society, which has given him a unique perspective on the industry’s future.  Presently he is the Associate Producer of a documentary film titled “With These Hands,” documenting the closing of Hooker Furniture’s last domestic plant in Martinsville, VA.  The film is due to be released November of 2008.

Devon Dartnell

Biomass Program Manager

Georgia Forestry Commission

Devon Dartnell is the Biomass Program Manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission.He serves as the first director of Georgia’s biomass energy program, and he is responsible for promoting the use of forest biomass for Bioenergy and other applications.  Prior to working for the Georgia Forestry Commission, Devon spent 16 years working in the oilfield exploration and production industry in various engineering and managerial positions around the world.  He holds a Bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech.  Dartnell currently lives in Morgan County, Georgia with his wife Maryann and their two children.

Jerry Morey

President/Co-owner

Bandit Industries, Inc.

Jerry Morey is President and Co-owner of Bandit Industries, Inc.  He has been involved in the manufacturing and sale of chippers and waste reduction machines for the past 35 years.  Bandit Industries manufactures a wide range of chippers and waste reduction machines that will be featured in the live demonstrations as part of the wood energy conference.  Morey will demonstrate a number of chippers and will process whole trees and logging slash.  He will also demonstrate their waste reduction machine, the Beast, with a new knife chipping option.  This system allows the Beast to work as a whole tree chipper, delivering a dimensional, screened chip.  If the opportunity presents itself, he will also process bailed logging waste.  As part of the presentation in this program, Morey will discuss Bandit’s role in global wood energy markets and how their equipment is providing raw material for wood fired power plants, wood gasification systems and raw material for wood pellet operations.  Bandit Industries has produced more than 40,000 chippers and more than 1,000 waste reduction machines that are working worldwide.

Jim Davis

President

Davis & Associates

Jim Davis holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Auburn University and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University.  He served in the United States Army as a lieutenant and has been a senior executive with a number of Fortune 500 companies.  Davis has written a best-selling book.  He has also been referred to in a feature magazine article as “the Steven Spielberg of wood products sales and marketing.”  Davis is currently the president of Davis & Associates, a management consulting firm in Atlanta.

Joseph J. James

President

Agri-Tech Producers, LLC

Joseph J. James is President of Agri-Tech Producers, a company commercializing mobile, auto-thermal and torrefaction technology for the enhancement of cellulosic biomass, and promoting the growth and utilization of highly productive bio-crops.  James has spent nearly thirty-eight years working in economic development, including top-level positions in Austin, Chicago, Columbia, Philadelphia, Richmond and the Washington, DC area.  In 2004, James authored and secured DOE funding for the State of South Carolina’s Biomass Market Development Program and consulted with the South Carolina Energy Office to assist in the program’s implementation, including the creation of the South Carolina Biomass Council and new state bio-energy incentives.  James serves on the Executive Committee of the South Carolina Biomass Council and is Chair of its Feedstock Committee.  He is a governor’s appointee on the South Carolina Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee and is also a member of the Carolinas Farm Stewardship Association, Clemson University’s Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Committee and the South Carolina Rural Development Council.  James is also a member of the Southeast Agriculture and Forestry Energy Resources (SAFER) Alliance.  James earned his Bachelor of Science from Union College and has studied Law and Business Administration at New York University.

Marshall Jacobson

Manager of Forest Productivity

Plum Creek Timber Company

Marshall Jacobson earned his Bachelor of Science, in forestry, in 1977.  He went on to earn his Masters in forestry in 1980.  Jacobson served in the army as a Vietnam helicopter pilot before beginning his career in forestry.  He was first employed with Rayonier for 14 years, where he did research, nursery, and environment work.  Next, Jacobson spent three years with IP in siliviculture research.  From there he moved on to GP Timber Company in Plum Creek where he worked in the Athens area for 12 years.  Jacobson is currently Manager of Forest Productivity at Plum Creek Timber Company where his duties include oversight for silviculture research, genetics, nurseries, operational silviculture finance, budgeting and monitoring, all on approximately 8 million acres nationwide.  He is also involved with research cooperatives at forestry schools across the country.  Jacobson is the current chair of the NCASI Forest Sustainability and Eastern Wildlife task force.

Ezell Castleberry

President

Alabama Loggers Council

Castleberry Logging operates primarily on first thinning and fuel wood operations in Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe and Baldwin counties in Alabama. Jeff Castleberry is the principle manager of the Forest Operations producing Clean Chips and fuel wood in excess of 2500 tons weekly to Georgia Pacific and Alabama River Pine Pulp. Timber harvesting and production of clean chips for Cooper Marine and Timberlands in Mobile, Ala.  Mill operations include wet yard chipping at Mead Westvaco, Marht Mill near Cottonton, Ala. John Castleberry runs the clean chipping and fuel wood grinding operation at the Wet Wood Yard Facility at Marht Papermill.  Castleberry Logging has been recognized by the Alabama Forestry Association as Logger of the Year in 1997 and they are also the recipient of the Forest Resource Association South Central Region Logger of the Year Award. Board member of the Southern Loggers Co-operative.  Ezell is former Chair of the Alabama Loggers Council, and he currently serves on both the Board of the Wood Supply Research Institute and the Board of the Forest Resource Association.  He is the 2008 President of the American Loggers Council. Ezell is also a supporter of Log A Load For Kids and serves as chief cook for Holly Grove Methodist Church Fish Fry.

Frederick W. Cubbage

Professor

Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources
North Carolina State University

Fred Cubbage is a professor for the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University.   He has a B.S. degree in forestry from Iowa State University and M.S. and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota.  Cubbage served as head of the NCSU Department of Forestry from 1994 to 2004, spent five years as a research forester and project leader with the Southern Forest Experiment Station in New Orleans and in Research Triangle Park.  He was employed almost 10 years as a professor at the University of Georgia and two years as state forester in Kentucky.  Cubbage has authored or co-authored more than 350 publications and given about 400 speeches on subjects that include forest policy, program evaluation, forest certification, nonindustrial private forest landowners, timber supply and timber harvesting.  He is senior author of the 1993 textbook Forest Resource Policy, and editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Forests and Forestry in the Americas http://forestryencyclopedia.jot.com He was a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and Uruguay in 2004 and has conducted projects periodically in the Southern Cone countries since.  His research has focused on forest certification and on timber investments in the Americas in the last four years.  Cubbage is a registered forester in North Carolina and owns forest land in Johnson County, Georgia.

Herbert L. DeCuers, CIC, ARM

Director of Sales

Davis-Garvin Agency

DeCuers has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Jacksonville University in Florida. He is also a member of the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors and has earned the Associate in Risk Management designation from the American Institute at the Wharton School of Business. He has over 37 years experience in Insurance & Risk Management and currently serves as the Director of Sales for Davis-Garvin Agency.

Andre Klemarewski

LVL Technology Manager

Raute

Andre Klemarewski first joined Raute in 1987 and presently is LVL Technology Manager for Raute in North America. He studied Wood Technology in Warsaw, Poland and continued his studies at the University of British Columbia.  His carrier was always involved with Wood Composites and he worked at the University of British Columbia, Forintek and C-Max.  He is also the President of a consulting company Applied Composites Technologies.

Arthur J. Ford

Region Manager, South Georgia

Georgia Institute of Technology, Enterprise Innovation Institute

Based in Georgia Tech’s Albany office, Art Ford is part of the Industry Services group and serves as region manager of EDI’s south Georgia region that includes 32 counties. Fostering innovation and competitiveness, he provides management and technical assistance to industries and communities in the region. His work involves traveling to plant and community locations and helping managers and community leaders solve specific problems. He has been employed at Georgia Tech since 1986.  Ford previously worked with Lilliston Corporation as a chief engineer of the industrial division and project engineer in the agricultural division where he designed tillage and grain drill equipment.  Ford completed the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma in 1990. He is certified by the National Development Council as an Economic Development Finance Professional. He is a certified by the International Economic Development Council as a Certified Economic Developer.  He also holds an MBA from Albany State University and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Florida. Ford is also a registered professional engineer in Georgia.  Ford is a member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association and the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.   He has served as a board member for Lee County Family Connections collaborative.

Barbara H. Wells, PhD

President and CEO

ArborGen, LLC

Since 2002, Barbara Wells has led the development of ArborGen into a global biotechnology company with pending approval on its first biotech tree, a full and diverse product pipeline and a well-established nurseries and orchards business that has created a full market channel for purpose grown trees.  Wells has U.S. and global expertise in the development and commercialization of agricultural and forestry products, including traditional crops and biotech crops. She has more than 20 years experience in global commercial, technical and regulatory strategies for biotech products for agriculture and forestry. Her knowledge of science combined with her business management skills  have brought her to lead a global company toward a sustainable new future in forestry innovation.  Wells is a member of the Food and Agriculture Sector Governing Body of BIO. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Agroforestry Center.  Wells also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Forest Biotechnology. She received her PhD in agronomy from Oregon State University, and both her M.S. in plant pathology and her B.S. with honors in horticulture from the University of Arizona.

Benjamin A. Thorp, III

Renewable Energy Consultant

Past President Flambeau River BioRefinery

Thorp is a leader in renewable energy, a former leader in pulp and paper associations, and retired director of pulp and paper engineering, Georgia-Pacific Corporation. In addition, Thorp was an officer with Chesapeake Corporation, James River Corporation, BE&K, Poyry-BEK and Huyck Corporation.  Thorp graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelors degree in physics.  He completed advanced studies in Mechanical Engineering, Management and Marketing.  He is currently serving on three company and three non-profit organization boards  He is a past board member of several organizations.  Honors awarded to Thorp include being named a TAPPI Fellow in 1986, being awarded the TAPPI Paper & Board Division Leadership Award in 1994, receiving the PIMA Glen T. Renegar Award in 1999 and the 2002 PIMA-CPBIS Management Excellence award.  Thorp is the holder of six U.S. patents with others pending submission.

Bob Nurre

Vice President, Veneer and Panel Sales

Midway United Ltd. BVI.

Midway United is a joint venture between Russian and American partners presently building two plywood/veneer plants in the Russia Federation, specifically in the Krasnoyarsk krai and Irkutsk oblast of Siberia. Prior to joining Midway United, Nurre worked in various positions at Georgia-Pacific beginning in the Distribution Division, moving to the Manufacturing Division and finally as National Sales Manager of Hardwood Plywood.  He has been heavily involved with the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association as a member of the marketing committee and later as a member of the board of directors. Nurre holds a bachelors of sciences from Iowa State University.

Brian Wommack

Parallel Strand Lumber Manufacturing Operations Engineer

iLevel, Weyerhaeuser Company

Brian Wommack earned his Associate of Science in Forestry from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.  He went on to earn his BS in Forest Resources Management from the University of Georgia.  His first job was with Canal Wood Corporation, where he began as a Timber Cruiser and progressed to a Timber Buyer, Field Manager, then Senior Field Manager for the Northeast Georgia Area.  In 1997, he went to TrusJoist MacMillan as a Procurement Forester.  In 2000 Weyerhaeuser bought TrusJoist and in 2001 Wommack accepted a new position within the Manufacturing Operations Division.  He is currently the Parallel Strand Lumber Manufacturing Operations Engineer for iLevel; Veneer Technologies; South Region, Weyerhaeuser Company.  Wommack is a member of the Georgia Forestry Association, the Society of American Foresters, president of the Daniel B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources Alumni Association, chairman of the Daniel B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources Alumni Steering Committee, a member of  Xi Sigma Pi, National Forestry Honor Society, a Georgia State Registered Forester and a SAF National Certified Forester.  Wommack was the 2000 recipient of the H.H. Jefferson Memorial Safety Award given by the Forest Resources Association for “Exemplary Work Promoting Safety Within The Forest Products Industry.”

Dennis R. Hanlon

Vice President

UCT Forestry, Primary Wood Products

Dennis R. Hanlon joined UCT Coatings as Vice President of Marketing and Global Licensing in 2000.  Drawing on his 30 years of experience in the industry, Hanlon was responsible for licensing UCT’s current and future metal coating technologies in the commercial and defense markets worldwide.  UCT Forestry was formed based on the initial business development work that Hanlon conducted in the forest products industry sectors.  Previous to joining UCT, he was Founder, President and CEO of DRH International, Inc., a technology development, marketing and management consulting company.  Hanlon was President and Chief Operating Officer of M&T Harshaw, an international specialty metal finishing chemical, equipment and service company, which was merged with Berlin Germany’s Schering metal finishing business to form Atotech, Inc., Berlin, Germany in 1992.  Hanlon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management.  He is the former President of the Metal Finishing Suppliers Association and in 1999 received its highest award, the August P. Munning Award.  He is a charter member of the Surface Finishing Industry Council.  He was an executive committee member and Board Member of the National Association of Metal Finishers and was responsible for the integration of MFSA and NAMF in 1997.

Greg Alles

President

Bliss Industries, LLC

Greg Alles has 30 years of experience in designing and supplying systems involving drying, screening, grinding (particle size reduction), pelleting (densification), cooling, material handling (pneumatic and mechanical), storage, packaging and dust control for many industries and types of product applications. Alles designed and supplied the first wood pellet plant to China through Bliss Industries, LLC over a decade ago. Alles was also instrumental in introducing and applying the Bliss pellet mill for densifying different wood species and agricultural biomass. Recently, much of his time has been involved in the design and supply of waste to energy facilities.

Jim Langdale

Vice President, General Manager

Langdale Forest Products

The Langdale Company is the largest fully integrated, privately held forest products company east of the Mississippi River. The company divisions include land management, primary lumber manufacturing, pressure treated products and utility poles, OSB, medium density fiberboard, molding products, export, secondary manufacturing and affiliated businesses are among the many companies that comprise Langdale. The company was started in the 1800s with concentration upon naval stores moving into the production of sawn and treated products.  Langdale has been a cooperator and sponsor of Traditional Industry Program – Forest Resources Products (TIP3-FRP) supporting research activities at both UGA Warnell and Georgia Tech AWPL. The TIP3-FRP sponsored projects by Langdale Industries have involved biofuel energy sourcing, forest plantation management, harvesting systems, glulam beams from low grade and juvenile southern pine, finger joined lumber recovery options and orientated strandboard development conducted by the Universities and industry research programs.  Jim Langdale has been involved in numerous management positions within the company manufacturing operations for solid and engineered wood products.  Jim holds a degree from Valdosta State in Business Management.

Roger Peterson

Director, Wood Materials Marketing

BioResource Management, Inc.

Roger Peterson is the Director of Wood Materials Marketing for BioResource Management, Inc. in Gainesville, Florida.  He actively develops new markets for organic material for use as energy, chemicals and other uses throughout the United States.  He has more than fifteen years of experience in handling a wide range of organic materials, including wood ash, manures, urban wood waste and storm debris.  Peterson received his BS in Environmental Science from the University of Maine.  His experience includes managing ash disposal operations for biomass energy facilities, serving as an officer in a national wood waste recycling firm and operating his own organic materials logistics company for many years.

Russell Gentry

Associate Professor, Architecture Program

Associate Director, Research & Development

Russell Gentry is an Associate Professor in the Architecture Program and is the Associate Director of Research and Development in the college’s Advanced Wood Products Laboratory.  Gentry teaches the required structural design courses in the professional degree program and graduate electives in building technology. His course in Green Construction focuses on technical aspects of sustainable design and construction - life cycle assessment, green materials, building rating systems and measures of green building performance.  Gentry’s research focuses on the development and assessment of building materials and components. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration and the General Services Administration.  His current work deals with development and assessment of wood-based structural materials and on the development of bio-based and synthetic fiber reinforced composites. Gentry is an Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Composites for Construction and is a member of American Concrete Institute and Transportation Research Board Committees on composite materials.  Gentry received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech and PhD in structures from the University of Michigan. Gentry is a registered civil engineer in Georgia, Maryland, and Michigan.

Timothy M. Young, PhD

Research Associate Professor

University of Tennessee, Forest Products Center

Timothy M. Young is a Research Associate Professor in the Forest Products Center at the University of Tennessee.  He has a PhD in Natural Resources and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Tennessee, as well as an M.S. in Forest Economics and a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Wisconsin.  He has written more than 105 articles in peer reviewed journals, proceedings and trade journals.  Young has four years of front-line manufacturing experience with Georgia-Pacific Corporation in MDF manufacture.  He also has work experience with the U.S. Forest Service.  His current areas of research include the application of real-time statistical process control to wood products manufacture, multi-sensor data fusion, statistical and heuristic real-time process modeling of wood composites and developing new statistical-based reliability methods.  Young is former President of the Mid-South Section of the Forest Products Society and former chair of the 2007 Forest Products Society International Convention.  He is also chair of the Process Control and Quality Control Research Group of the Forest Products Society and is a member of the American Society of Quality, American Statistical Association and Tennessee Forestry Association.