J.M. Huber Corp. named Gretchen W. McClain has as President & CEO through a unanimous vote of the Huber Board of Directors. McClain succeeds Mike Marberry, who is retiring after a 25-year career with Huber, including 13 years as President & CEO.

“I am extremely excited to be the next Chief Executive Officer of this high-performing company,” says McClain, who has served as a member of Huber’s Corporate Board of Directors since 2016. “This family-owned enterprise is in a phase of its development that we like to describe as ‘Prosperity with a Purpose.’ The commitment of the Huber family shareholders to both economic and social value echoes my deep belief in leading businesses by ‘doing well’ and ‘doing good.’ Guided by the Huber Principles and with the participation of our employees globally, our innovative portfolio of businesses will continue to serve customers and support the communities where we operate as we together create the Huber of tomorrow.”

McClain has held a diverse range of leadership roles over her career, including the founding CEO of Xylem Inc.—an S&P 500 global water technology company with almost $4 billion in revenue—and Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s International Space Station.

Marberry comments, “Huber is poised for successful journey ahead, and Gretchen is the right leader to guide the enterprise to its next pinnacle of achievements. She genuinely appreciates the unique aspects of Huber, and she is passionate about keeping the company strongly aligned with the family’s long-term aspirations.”

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Everything fell into place at the eighth Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) held March 31 to April 1 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Ga.

“Two things combined to make this the best PELICE in some years,” comments Rich Donnell, co-chairman of PELICE and editor-in-chief of Panel World. “One was the tremendous wood products markets we’ve been experiencing for months on end, and the second thing was simply that people and companies were more than ready to get out of the house so to speak and meet in-person, many of them doing so for the first time since the previous PELICE in 2020.”

PELICE 2022 recorded 450 participants on-site, including wood products producer personnel, exhibitor personnel, and representatives from investment, consulting, academia and a range of other sectors associated with the structural and non-structural wood products industries.

Executives, plant managers, project managers, engineers, human resources and other personnel from 30 wood products producer companies took in presentations delivered by 55 industry personnel on a range of topics including Legal Matters, Global Technologies & Trends, Quality Control, Plywood & Veneer-Based Technologies, Resins/Waxes/Coatings, Air Treatment, Fire Prevention, Process Optimization, Products/Research/Labor and Energy Applications.

They also enjoyed combing the aisles of the Grand Ballroom North where 100 exhibitors set up shop. All of the exhibitors were Gold, Silver or Bronze sponsors and participated in the sponsorship of the numerous food functions that complement PELICE.

Eight keynote talks during the course of PELICE drew the largest crowds. PELICE has always been about projects in the works or projects just completed, and the keynoters fit the bill. They included: Scott Poole, president and COO of RoyOMartin; Jake Elston, senior vice president of operations at Roseburg Forest Products; Wedig Graf Grote, chief operating officer at Swiss Krono USA; Johannes Edger, Head of Sales North America, EGGER Wood Products; Doug Pauze, president, Coastland Wood Industries, Dr. Roger Tutterow, professor of Economics, Kennesaw State University; Jose Gonzalez, director at AFRY Management Consulting; Jackson Morrill, president & CEO, American Wood Council.

PELICE was hosted by Panel World magazine and Georgia Research Institute.

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