This past week I had the opportunity to attend the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) awards ceremony in Ottawa. In its inaugural year, this event recognizes the leaders, innovators and the best and the brightest in Canada’s forest products industry. I am very proud to share that two Canfor employees were recipients at the 2018 FPAC Industry Awards.
Matt Buxton, a Mechanical Technologist at our Prince George Pulp Mill, received the inaugural Rising Star Award of Excellence. This first-time award allows the industry to showcase the talent and knowledge that young professionals are bringing to the workplace. Since joining the company in 2015, Matt has identified and addressed key inefficiencies in the operations including the development of a chip digger arm that has negated the need to use a contractor excavator and greatly improved the efficiency of chip car unloading, He has also successfully implemented the use of drones for vessel inspections and created a custom app that monitors the guarding status of relevant equipment. With these contributions, we weren’t surprised that FPAC chose Matt as their “Rising Star” award recipient and we are very proud to have him as part of our team.
We also saw Michael Jordan awarded FPAC’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his career-long commitment to the forest products industry. Michael spent the last 29 years of his career with Canfor, having just recently retired as Director of Environment and Energy. Michael not only dedicated his career to our industry but spent the majority of it with Canfor and I know we are all tremendously proud that he received this prestigious recognition. This award is particularly meaningful as Michael sadly passed away on May 3, 2018.Michael’s wife, Ann, attended the ceremony and accepted Michael’s well-deserved award. It was evident at the awards ceremony that it will be the entire Canadian industry that will deeply miss Michael, not just Canfor.
What makes Canfor an industry leader is the exceptional people throughout the company, and I am proud to have these two Canfor employees recognized amongst a very impressive group of winners.