Organizers of the Timber Processing & Energy Expo (TP&EE) announced that the exhibitor renewal program begins this April for the biennial event, to be held September 23-25, 2026 at the Portland Exposition Center in Portland, Ore.

TP&EE 2024, held in September 2024, attracted 1,000 non-exhibitor personnel and nearly as many exhibitor personnel. About 80 wood producer companies sent personnel to comb the aisles of 180 exhibitor companies that were displaying technologies on 45,000 square feet of booth space in Hall E on the Portland Expo grounds.

In an exhibitors’ survey taken immediately after the 2024 show, 70% of exhibitors said they had confirmed an order or probably would related to discussions at the show.

TP&EE is produced by Hatton-Brown Expositions and hosted by Panel World, Timber Processing, and Wood Bioenergy magazines.

The 2026 event will be the seventh conducted by Hatton-Brown, since assuming the long-running Portland show. “It’s a much more consolidated industry in the Northwest than it was, say in the 1980s,” comments Show Director Rich Donnell. “But it’s still highly relevant, and we feel an obligation to deliver the event to the Northwest wood products community, where some of the best operators are still going strong, and several new mills are coming up.”

Larger exhibitors in the 2024 event were emailed the first week of April with renewal options for the 2026 show, options for smaller exhibitors will follow in the coming months. Sponsorship programs will also be announced soon.

Huber Engineered Woods (HEW) has announced that Kirk Blanchette will become President of HEW, succeeding Brian Carlson, who is retiring as of July 1.

Blanchette will bring more than 25 years of experience in finance, corporate strategy and leadership to the role. He is currently Chief Financial Officer & Vice President of Strategy for HEW. In addition to currently leading the marketing, strategy, finance & accounting, purchasing and risk functions for HEW, he previously had responsibility for the logistics, sales and operations planning, inside sales, information technology and industrial/OEM functions as well.

Prior to joining HEW in 2012, Blanchette held numerous roles in the venture capital and private equity industries, most recently as a Partner at Seguin Partners, a middle-market-focused fund. Prior to his principle investing roles he was an investment banker with Bank of America focused on mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance for industrial clients.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Investments from Babson College and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

“I am honored to step into this role and continue building on the foundation of success established by Brian Carlson and our incredible HEW team,” Blanchette says. “As a family-owned business, we remain committed to our core values—the Huber Principles—and our valued employees and customers. I look forward to leading the organization to deliver outstanding results for our customers and shareholders into the future.”

Carlson adds, “This is an exciting time for our entire organization. Kirk is well prepared to lead HEW into its next era, where it will keep delivering innovative, sustainable building solutions that address the needs of our customers and the North American housing and construction industry at large.”

Mercer Mass Timber (MMT), a manufacturer of timber building materials and a subsidiary of Mercer International Inc., has announced the completion of a key role in the construction of Walmart’s new Home Office in Bentonville, Ark.—the largest mass timber corporate campus in the U.S. The installation of Mercer mass timber panels began in spring 2024 and is now complete.

Shawmut Design and Construction and Layton Construction selected MMT to provide cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (glulam) for two major sections of the campus, opening in late 2025 to early 2026:

Zone 1: Four hybrid mass timber buildings (four stories each) totaling 897,500 sq. ft. of office space and parking decks.
Zone 3: Additional offices built with full mass timber frames including a single five-story building with a total area of 332,615 sq. ft.

Mercer Conway, located in Conway, Ark., supplied a total of 21,000 m3 of CLT and glulam.

“This project showcases how mass timber can transform commercial construction,” comments Nick Milestone, SVP at Mercer Mass Timber. “We’re proud to support Walmart’s sustainability vision and demonstrate how local, eco-friendly materials create beautiful, high-performance workplaces.”

“This marks the completion of our first major mass timber contract, but it’s just the beginning,” adds Ricardo Brites, Director of Engineering & VDC at MMT. “We look forward to leading more projects that showcase mass timber’s potential.”