Ric Sinclair with Christine Flanagan of Calco Trusses and Timber
Australia’s forest industries have paid tribute to outgoing Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) Managing Director Ric Sinclair. Mr Sinclair announced his resignation this week after his 13 years in the role. Source: Timberbiz
Prior to joining FWPA, Mr Sinclair spent seven years in the grocery and food industry where he worked in operations, corporate finance, and strategy roles.
“We are proud of the achievements of the FWPA team under Ric’s leadership over the last 13 years and although these are challenging times, we have continued to deliver an enormous amount of great work despite COVID, lock downs, devastating fires and significant market fluctuations,” FWPA Chairman Craig Taylor said.
“Ric leaves the company in a strong position following the recent independent review that strongly endorsed our performance, the signing of a new 10-year funding agreement with the Commonwealth Government and the development of a new strategic plan.”
Mr Sinclair has committed to ensure a smooth transition to his replacement during his notice period.
“I am proud of what the team have achieved during my time at FWPA,” Mr Sinclair said, “And I look forward to seeing them continue to grow relationships with our stakeholders, communication channels with our markets and new opportunities for sustainable forest and wood products.”
When asked to nominate his key achievements, Mr Sinclair listed: building a great team focused on collaborating to deliver results; establishing a partnership with Planet Ark to tell wood’s carbon and renewability story through consumer advertising; creating WoodSolutions, a world-leading activity promoting the use of wood and wood products to material specifiers in the construction sector and forging strong stakeholder relationships.
But he was quick to add, then the achievements were not his, but the whole team’s.
Other significant achievements during Mr Sinclair’s leadership include; ensuring changes to the National Construction Code that reduce impediments to the use of wood and wood products in mid-rise projects; establishing an advisory service to help realise mid-rise opportunities; developing a statistics resource for the industry; creating ForestLearning to provide teaching materials to schools; implementing WoodSolutions Campus, an online training centre; launching an industry leadership program; using wide-ranging research to inform evidence-based decisions and founding the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life.
Mr Sinclair has also been instrumental in building stronger relationships with Government and other Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs).
Three independent assessments commissioned by FWPA during Mr Sinclair’s leadership showed that the forest and wood products industry received exceptional returns for each dollar invested and company’s external audits have continued to confirm exemplary financial management.
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Forest Products Association Ross Hampton said Mr Sinclair had been a committed servant to forest industries, not just during his time at FWPA, but ever since his early career in forestry.
“More recently though on the research and development front, Ric has led FWPA through a large number of programs and areas of forest industries research that have been critical in allowing our industries to grow, develop and innovate,” Mr Hampton said.
He had also overseen the development of the ‘Ultimate Renewable’ brand.
“Alongside all of the R&D and marketing work, Ric has led FWPA through challenging periods, including major market fluctuations, significant bushfires and COVID closures,” Mr Hampton said.
