Roseburg is pleased to announce that Tony Ramm has accepted the role of Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, effective April 8, 2024. Ramm will drive an increased emphasis on the sustainable, long-term success of the manufacturing side of Roseburg’s wood products business.

Ramm first joined Roseburg in May 2014 as plant manager at Riddle Plywood and moved through roles of progressive responsibility on the operations side of the business. He was named Vice President of Human Resources in June 2023, and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Human Resources in December 2023.

“Tony’s deep manufacturing experience and operational acumen will be vital as Roseburg shifts focus from the construction and startup phase at our newer plants and capital investment projects to the long-term successful operation of our manufacturing assets,” Roseburg President and CEO Stuart Gray comments. “His past year with human resources adds another important dynamic and will be extremely beneficial as we embrace the future of manufacturing and the rapid pace of evolution in our industry.”

As a result of the restructuring, Jake Elston, former SVP of Operations, has left the company to pursue other opportunities. “Roseburg is sincerely grateful to Jake for his contributions to our manufacturing business. We wish him the best in the next phase of his life and career,” Gray adds.

Roseburg has reinstated the Chief Operations Officer position vacated last year when Gray was named President and CEO of the company. Effective April 8, 2024, the manufacturing, sales and marketing, human resources, and engineering teams will report to the COO.

During the transition, President of Roseburg Resources Scott Folk will serve as interim Chief Operations Officer, while the company conducts an internal and external search for a permanent COO to work closely with operations leaders in tackling Roseburg’s biggest challenges and driving results.

Chief of Staff Cybelle White will provide executive oversight and support to human resources and environmental, health, and safety leaders while the company conducts an internal and external search for a permanent VP of HR. Doug Asano, SVP of Sales and Marketing, will report to the COO, as will Jim Salchenberg, Senior Director of Engineering and Operations Assets.

Roseburg has annouced that Nadine Orozco has been promoted to Director of Strategic Business Development. She has served as manager of strategic business development since 2022, and has been deeply involved in key company projects, including the recent sale of Roseburg’s Simsboro, La., particleboard plant to Kronospan and the company’s historic $700 million investment in Oregon manufacturing.

“Nadine has shown tremendous growth as a leader in her time at Roseburg. She understands our business, our culture, and our goals,” Roseburg Vice President of Corporate Strategy and External Affairs Eric Geyer says. “She has the knowledge and strategic mindset necessary to succeed in her new role. I am excited to see her continued growth and increased responsibility.”

Orozco will lead execution of Roseburg’s strategic initiatives to drive company growth, diversification, and profitability. She will facilitate internal and external teams to develop, evaluate and oversee projects including acquisitions and partnerships, while providing strategic analysis for the company’s executive team and Board of Directors.

Orozco joined Roseburg in October 2012, after earning her master’s degree in Wood Science and Engineering from Oregon State University. She holds a bachelor of science degree in Business Administration and Management from Northland College. During her time with Roseburg, she has held positions of increasing responsibility within manufacturing operations, sales and marketing, sustainability, corporate compliance, and business development.

Kalesnikoff Mass Timber announced it will build a $34 million mass timber facility in West Kootenays, British Columbia. It will create up to 90 jobs.

New and expanded products and services will include modular construction, prefabricated mass timber and light frame components, and custom installation-ready products. It will also increase Kalensnikoff’s glue laminated timber capacity.

“We have experienced consistently strong interest and demand,” says Chris Kalesnikoff, Chief Operating Officer of Kalesnikoff Mass Timber. “This additional offering of leading mass timber products and services for the North American construction industry will support mass timber buildings including student and workforce housing, prefabricated housing and other mass timber projects.”

Kalesnikoff’s initial Mass Timber facility, located in South Slocan, launched in 2019 with 60 jobs and now employs 160. The existing Kalesnikoff sawmill in Thrums will provide a continuous and secure local fiber supply.

Kalesnikoff is a fourth-generation, family-owned, West Kootenay based company founded 85 years ago. 

By Rich Donnell

    Godfrey Forest Products, with multi-investor backing, has announced plans to build an 800MMSF annual production capacity brownfield oriented strandboard (OSB) plant in Jay, Maine, at the site of a paper mill known as the Androscoggin Mill, which closed in 2023. The company, led by John Godfrey, renown for his development of OSB plants since the early 1980s, hopes to gain necessary permitting within a year and begin construction thereafter. Jay is approximately 65 miles due north of Portland, Maine.
    The project announcement was held March 8 at the Androscoggin Mill, with Governor Janet Mills leading off. “I still remember how I felt in April 2020 upon hearing of the digester explosion, Mills said. “I was concerned of course about the safety of the employees, but also for the future of the mill and this community.”
She said it’s been a priority to bring business back into the community since the mill’s closing, and referred to the Godfrey OSB announcement as “one significant project” for this property, and cited Godfrey’s long and successful history with OSB project development. She said the mill would provide 125 jobs in addition to construction jobs.
State Senator Lisa Keim (R-Oxford) recalled how generations of family and friends had worked at the mill. “Seeing the paper mill go silent hit us all very hard,” she said. “The announcement today brings back hope and opportunity. Jay is going to be a mill town once again. It’s a revitalization.”
Godfrey said at age 75 he might have been inclined to retire, “but it’s so much fun building OSB mills, why not one more round?”
Born in Bangor, Maine, Godfrey said when heard of the problems at the paper mill and ultimate closure, he saw an opportunity to redirect some of the unused pine pulpwood tonnage into a facility with ready-made infrastructure such as utilities, railroad tracks, excellent Northeast markets for wood products, and he emphasized that labor with manufacturing experience was plentiful in the area.
Godfrey, speaking from where he expected the finishing line will be located, estimated two and a half years until the beginning of production—following environmental permitting, equipment selection, removing existing buildings, construction of the plant, equipment installation and startup.
Godfrey said wood products will help to alleviate the sting of lost pulp and paper manufacturing in the state. “Maine is devoid of pulp mills now. The amount of wood is considerable.” Environmentally speaking, he added that “building materials is the ultimate storage of carbon from the atmosphere. It’s basically locked up for good.”
Godfrey wouldn’t reveal the investment figure, but said it was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and he noted that the first million had come from the Maine Technology Institute.
International Paper built the Androscoggin Mill in 1965 and sold it to Verso Paper in 2006, which sold it to Pixelle Specialty Solutions in 2020. An explosion in the pulp digester area in spring 2020 did major damage and the mill never recovered.
An investment partnership purchased the property in early 2024, from which Godfrey Forest Products purchased just shy of 100 acres.
In recent years Godfrey was on the cusp of building an OSB plant at a procured site in Winslow, Ariz., as part of the U.S. Forest Service 4 Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI), which was intended to treat and improve forest health conditions on more than 2.5 million acres across four Arizona national forests while establishing wood products manufacturing and biomass processing infrastructure.  
But the Forest Service couldn’t piece the plan together and in 2021 canceled the bid-award phase, which included Godfrey’s bid for an OSB plant. In addition to a site for the plant, Godfrey had completed an engineering design, preliminary air work, and had a number of contractual relationships lined up.
    Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Godfrey’s career started in Maine with Great Northern Nekoosa where he held several manufacturing and financial positions, and oversaw timberlands. In 1980, he left GNN and formed Godfrey Forest Products to develop an OSB mill in northern Maine. The mill, at Houlton (New Limerick), was developed and built in a partnership with Louisiana-Pacific Corp. Shortly after startup in 1982, Godfrey sold his interest in the facility to L-P. He proceeded to develop and execute a plan for the first OSB mill in Europe, founding Highland Forest Products at Inverness, Scotland in 1983. He served as Managing Director and CEO of HFP through startup and into successful operation. After several years of operation, HFP was acquired by Norbord.
Godfrey then assembled an investment partnership to acquire a defunct particleboard mill at Miramichi, New Brunswick in 1994. He led the formation of Eagle Forest Products and Chatham Forest Products, which reconstructed the Miramichi mill into an updated OSB facility. The mill operated three years and was sold to MacMillan Bloedel.