Luoma Announces Retirement

Longtime executive and manager in the wood products industry, for years with LP, Brian Luoma announced he is retiring at the end of 2023 from his position as president and CEO of The Westervelt Co.

Luoma joined Alabama-based Westervelt as president and CEO in 2017, and has been instrumental in the company’s expansion of its lumber and timberlands divisions.

Prior to coming to Westervelt, Luoma worked in various capacities for Louisiana-Pacific for nearly three decades. He led LP’s EWP division for nearly 10 years and also headed its siding division.

Current Westervelt COO Cade Warner will succeed Luoma. Warner joined Westervelt in 2017 and has held roles in strategy and planning, sustainability and continuous improvement.

Luoma comments, “I am so blessed to have had a long and fulfilling career in the best industry in the world. Nancy and I will cherish all of the friendships we have made all over the industry. Friendships that will last a lifetime. We appreciate our time at LP and all of the great people there. Our time at Westervelt literally changed our lives. The people at Westervelt are in a league of their own. I am very proud of the next generation of leadership that will take the company to a new level. This is the right time for me and for Westervelt.”

From Fort Bragg, Calif., Luoma’s first job for LP, while attending college, was as an assistant log scaler in the log yard at the LP stud mill in Fort Bragg. He worked for LP each summer during college, and LP moved him into the woods as a forestry technician, laying out roads and timber harvesting plans.

Luoma graduated in Forestry from Humboldt State University in 1986. He became timberlands manager for LP in northern California, then was wood procurement manager for the Western Region. He later led LP’s Northern Operations OSB group out of Hayward, Wis., before moving to LP headquarters in Nashville as head of forestry and wood procurement and ultimately being promoted to head up engineered wood products and then siding operations.

Luoma plans to move back to Tennessee, where his children and grandchildren reside and where he has recently purchased a house in Murfreesboro.

“My wife told me I could go wherever I want but that she’s going to Tennessee. I decided I better go to Tennessee!” Luoma says tongue-in-cheek.