Dr. Leitch has been a both a professor of wood science and forest products and a Director of Wood Science and Testing Center in Lakehead University. Known as “The Wood Guy” to his students, Leitch admits to being obsessed with wood. And he thinks you should be too because he says wood is the only renewable resource on the planet. Leitch’s passion for wood led him to becoming a wood scientist. He studies wood properties, with a special focus on wood quality. By studying the mechanical, physical, and chemical properties of trees, he is able to maximize their use.

Dr. Crowe uses math and statistics to help foresters access and process timber most economically. His pioneering work on breeding zones modeling was cited over 300 times. A professor in Lakehead University, he is among the leading minds in perfecting the models of sustainable wood harvesting. To his full credit, some students (was that ever from ‘studious’ in Latin;) find him ‘too much of a thinker’, while admitting his dry sense of humour is hilarious.

Laird Van Damme is a registered professional forester (R.P.F.) since 1985 and is based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He has worked in many jurisdictions in North America and overseas as a consultant and co-owner of KBM Resources Group. KBM had forestry operations in Northwestern Ontario and Chile with an active trading partnership with Sweden. The firm has expanded its services to include aerial surveys using advanced sensors. He is now an independent consultant serving public and private agencies. As Board Chair, he is overseeing the growth of NFMC to now 1.5m acres of forest resources. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Lakehead University where he teaches forest policy and forest products marketing classes among other tasks and research programs. He graduated from Lakehead University with a masters in forest science (genetics) in 1985.

Dr. Pulkki has worked as an agriculture and forestry professor at Lakehead University for 34 years. He is one of Canada’s foremost experts on slash management. He graduated from Lakehead University with a bachelor of science in forestry in 1978. He finished his masters degree in 1980, licentiate degree in 1982 and doctorate in 1985 for agriculture and forestry all at University of Helsinki. The latter deepened his knowledge of Scandinavian forestry practices.