Session Two - Strategies for success

Chair: Tom Boon, President, PMA

Doug Steel has been forecasting the NZ economy for over 14 years. He joined the BNZ economic research team in 2010, following five years as an economist at another NZ bank. Prior to banking, Doug managed the macroeconomic forecasting team at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research – producing a comprehensive set of economic forecasts and presenting these to members of the business community and media. Between 1999 and 2004, Doug represented the New Zealand Pacific Economic Cooperation Council at the Pacific Economic Outlook forecasters' and structure specialists' taskforces. Doug has a focus on primary production, which he thinks underpins much of New Zealand's economic activity. He writes BNZ's agricultural commentary and outlook publication Rural Wrap.

INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE

Richard Phillips is Executive in Residence at the College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University.  He teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in capital investment strategy and is an active member of the Bioenergy Research group.

Richard joined NC State following retirement from International Paper,  the world’s largest pulp, paper and packaging company in December, 2005, where he worked 34 years in a variety of manufacturing and technical assignments.  As senior vice president – technology, Richard had responsibility for Manufacturing and Engineering Services, Research and Development, Safety and Environment.   Richard served as International Paper’s Executive Sponsor for the Kinleith Modernization project during the late 1990’s, and was a frequent visitor to New Zealand.

Since joining NC State, Richard is co - principal investigator on a number of bioenergy projects that  seek economically attractive integrated land/forest-to-wheels solutions for ethanol from biomass.  The NC State team has  a large number of grants to provide technical and economic modeling of integrated forest – manufacturing process systems.  He has authored more than 30 refereed journal articles and holds 8 United States patents, with  two new patent applications filed in the bioenergy field.

Richard received a PhD in chemical engineering from North Carolina State (1970), and was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.  He did postdoctoral research at the Université de Grenoble, France (1971) and attended the University of Michigan Executive Development courses in Marketing and in Finance.  He served in the United States Army from 1966-1968.

Richard served four years as a member of the Board of Directors of the  Ilim Group, the largest pulp and paper manufacturer in Russia, where he was chairman of the Strategic Planning and Capital Investment Committee.  He is also a member of the Board of the NC State Natural Resources Foundation.  He is also Visiting Lecturer at Nanjing Forest University, China, the St Petersburg (Russia) State University of Plant Polymers, and the University of Concepcion in Chile.  He actively consults with major pulp and paper companies on strategy issues and has been conference keynote speaker on four occasions in the past 5 years.

Richard Phillips proudly brought to the conference by

Lees Seymour is Managing Director of Nelson Forests. He has been Managing Director for the past nine years and held the same position in the previous Nelson Joint Venture with Weyerhaeuser. Prior to that, Lees was the Regional Manager of Weyerhaeuser Australia's Caboolture operations in Queensland. Lees has had forest industry experience in a range of countries including U.S.A, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and China. He holds a Bachelor in Forestry Science (B.For.Sc.) from University of Canterbury, and an MBA with distinction from Massey University. Lees is currently a board member of the New Zealand Forest Owners Association and the Wood Council of New Zealand and was previously the chair of the New Zealand Forest Industries Council.

Jane Arnott was appointed as CEO of NZ Wood mid 2011. Her challenge, to refocus and re-energise the NZ Wood promotional programme, draws on over 30 years  in corporate and marketing /communications  roles in both inhouse and external consultant capacities.

Her involvement in the launch of the first raft of SOE’s in 1987 saw her working on the NZ Forest Service account  and overseeing the brand development of the then Forestry Corporation of New Zealand including Timberlands  and ProSeed.  She also brings expertise in large scale design and brand development projects that span health, transport and logistics, security and environmental/conservation/agricultural projects and several IPO’s including the Warehouse and Affco. Consulting to MAF Biosecurity Jane developed the campaign approach for Protect New Zealand a role that subsequently   led her to introduce UK based business responsibility and sustainability auditing methodology to New Zealand. She has also introduced business ethics training as the first offshore Associate for the Institute of Business Ethics UK. She has presented at the European Academy of Business in Society and undertakes Business Ethics training for the Institute of Financial Advisers.

Paul Stocks joined MAF in 2004 as Director of the Biosecurity Strategic Unit, becoming Assistant Director General, Strategy & Performance in 2006. Prior to joining MAF Paul spent 11 years at the New Zealand Treasury, where he held a number of management roles, with responsibility for a range of areas including Education, Market Interventions, and Tax Policy. Between 1997 and 1999 he was seconded to the role of Chief of Staff for the Minister of Finance. Prior to joining Treasury Paul was a policy advisor at the Ministry of Health, and an advisor at the New Zealand Planning Council. Paul took up his current position of Deputy Director-General, Policy, in September 2008.

Session Three - Seismic shifts

Chair: Mark Hansen, President, WPA

INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE

Andrew Goodison is the current project manager of the financial modelling component of the Bio Pathways project for FP Innovations. He has been heavily involved in strategy work within the Forest and Paper Industry for the past 12 years and has experience in corporate and operations strategy, valuation, merger integration, acquisitions, and financial modelling (including valuation). His current focus is on the financial implications of the emerging Bio-economy in the forest sector including the impacts of carbon policies on the industry. Prior to joining FP Innovations, he held positions in PwC's Global Forest and Paper Group and IBM as a senior strategy consultant.

With over 600 employees spread across Canada, FP Innovations unites the individual strengths of internationally recognized forest research and development institutes into a single, greater force.
The divisions within FP Innovations:

• Forintek: Wood products
• FERIC: Forest operations
• Paprican: Pulp and paper
• Canadian Wood Fibre Centre

Andrew Goodison proudly brought to the conference by  

Dr. Stefano Pampanin is Associate Professor in Structural Design & Earthquake Engineering and Chair of the Structural/Geotechnical Cluster of the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand where he joined in 2002.

He obtained his Laurea (BE+ME) degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Pavia, a Masters in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego and a PhD in Earthquake Engineering from the Technical University of Milan. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) both in Italy and New Zealand.

His main research, consulting and expert advisory role activities include the seismic design of reinforced concrete and prestressed timber buildings as well as the assessment and retrofit of existing structures  During his research and professional activities in Europe, US and New Zealand, he has been actively involved in several national and international code committees and applied research projects. He is author of more than 200 scientific publications and has received several national and international awards.

Since the late 1990s he has been dedicating particular effort in the development, implementation and promotion of innovative damage-resistant solutions for either reinforced concrete buildings (PRESSS Technology) as well as prestressed laminated timber buildings (Pres-Lam). He has been a guest speaker/lecturer in more than 40 research/design institutes overseas. He has assisted during the design and acted as a peer-reviewer for the first two low-damage concrete buildings in New Zealand and the World’s first prestressed timber building (Nelson, NMIT).

Pierre Quenneville is originally from Canada. He is a structural engineer by education and has been in the timber research since 1988. He obtained his PhD in 1992 and his research interests are on timber structures, specifically connections. He attained international recognition for his research on bolted connections. Pierre has been serving on the Canadian Wood Design standard (O86) since 1993 and is still actively involved in its on-going development. From 1996 to 2009, he chaired its Fastenings sub-committee. In 1999, he established his structural timber consulting company and consulted on numerous timber projects in Canada and overseas. Pierre moved to Auckland in July 2007 as a result of his appointment to professor of timber design in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Auckland. He is one of the STIC objective leader and one of the co-inventor of the portal timber frame Quick-Connect connection. His other main research direction is to develop up-to-date design rules for connections in timber structures. He has taken the Headship of the Civil Engr Department in Auckland as of February 2011.

Session Four - Game Breaking Changes

Chair: Bill McCallum, President, FOA

Bruce Easton is a fervent forest industry advocate, a trained forestry professional having worked in large scale plantation forest industries for the past 36 years, including NZ, Australia, Scandinavia, Asia and North America.  His time with CHH and International Paper based in Hong Kong allowed him unique insights into the Asian Forest Industry particularly China. His role for the past four years as MD of Resource Management Service LLC (RMS) covering the Asia Pacific Region has extended this connection with the China Markets.  RMS is a global fully integrated TIMO with more than 1.2 million ha of plantation forest under management with offices in the US South, Brazil, New Zealand, Hong Kong and China. His presentation will briefly cover aspects of the China economic engine and what drives this quest for growth, the fibre supply equation, and one or two significant opportunities for the NZ industry to capture as a key supplier to the deficit markets of Asia.

Dave Hadfield holds a Masters degree in Psychology and is one of New Zealand's best known and most experienced mental skills coaches and high performance consultants. Originally a farmer, then a musician; and previously a University lecturer in coaching, sport psychology and leadership, Dave formed his own company, MindPlus, in 2003. He has worked extensively in NZ high performance sport (primarily for NZ Rugby & NZ Cycling), consulting to both elite athletes and coaches throughout the country. He has worked with 4 Super 15 rugby teams in the last 7 years (primarily the Crusaders), the NZ Sevens, NZ U20s and NZ Schools rugby teams and the NZ track cycling team. He has also worked off-shore in elite sport in Britain and France, including stints with the 2010 French Top 14 champions Clermont d'Auvergne. He also works with corporates, in the rural sector and has worked with the NZ Police. Dave is an innovative thinker, a challanging and lively presenter who is in high demand as a speaker and consultant throughout New Zealand and off-shore.

After Dinner Speaker

Joe Bennett was raised in Brighton, England, a town once described as looking as if it was helping the police with their enquiries. After teaching English in a few safe countries, he came to New Zealand for one year in 1987 and forgot to leave. He now makes his living by writing books and newspaper columns.

Conference dinner sponsored by C3 Limited.