Newsflash: SLB Leadership Transition Completed

Washington, D.C. – December 18, 2018. The Softwood Lumber Board is pleased to announce that it has completed its leadership succession plan. This was an important undertaking as the Board entered its second term following the successful revote of our Softwood Lumber Check-off program. To prepare for the second term, the Executive Team conducted an intense review on all programs for revalidation of all deliverables.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank Steve Lovett for his tireless and inspired leadership of the SLB from its creation through the revote.” said Chairman Marc Brinkmeyer. “Under Steve’s leadership, the SLB made history, bringing together the US regional producers from the Northeast, Southeast, Intermountain and West Coast, whom together with the Canadian importers make up our industry.

The SLB will move forward under the leadership of Cees de Jager as President and CEO. Cees developed and administered the successful programs of the SLB during the first term as our Chief Marketing Officer.  He has worked closely with Steve over the last 10 years.  Their teamwork demonstrated tremendous leadership in executing the SLB’s vision of making softwood lumber the building material of choice.”

With de Jager’s promotion, Ryan Flom has assumed the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Flom joined SLB in July as vice president of promotion and research. Together with Maureen Pello, who joined the SLB in October as vice president of operations, the three are responsible for leading the SLB and for increasing demand and expanding markets for softwood lumber products in the United States.

“The SLB is beginning its second term with a new leadership team, a strong mandate, and an enhanced, results-focused approach that drives our decisions and actions. The SLB has matured as an organization, evolving from a start-up check-off program to a sophisticated industry influencer. The SLB will continue to focus its investments on building codes, communications, and conversion from other materials to wood as a building material, but our team has been hard at work over the past several months analyzing and making important refinements that will ensure our programs reflect rapidly changing market conditions, emerging market opportunities, supply chain dynamics, and competitor behavior in the coming years,” said SLB CEO Cees de Jager.

Over the next five years, the SLB will lead a comprehensive and collaborative effort to realize the significant opportunities available to grow demand for softwood lumber. The strategy is designed to increase softwood lumber’s share in new market segments while protecting the share wood has already captured against competing interests.