Tony Clifford
Managing Director, Pan Pac Forest Products
Tony Clifford has been with Pan Pac for 29 years and was appointed Managing Director in early 2020. Initially employed as an electrical engineer, Tony has held technical and managerial roles within the company and has been a member of the executive management group for 15 years. Mr Clifford has overseen business developments for Pan Pac including market entrance for Lumber and Pulp products into Asia and beyond.
Dave Anderson
Managing Director, Winstone Pulp International (WPI)
Dave joined New Zealand Forest Products, Whakatane Board Mills in early 1977, moving to Winstone Pulp “Karioi Pulp mill’’ in late 1978 for commissioning of the pulp mill. Dave held a number of operational and management roles before been appointed Managing Director in early 1991.
Winstone Pulp International (WPI) was a fully integrated forestry company made up of the Karioi Pulp Mill, Tangiwai Sawmill and the Karioi and Waimarino Forests prior to its sale in 2008.
WPI was purchased by the Oregon Group in 2008 and its assets were combined with the Oregon Groups. Ernslaw (EOL) forestry and processing assets, forming two companies with WPI holding the processing assets and EOL the forestry assets.
Today WPI comprises of two processing assets both located between Ohakune and Waiouru, being the Karioi Pulp mill (KPM) which has an annual production of 220,000, and the Tangiwai Sawmill. The Tangiwai sawmill is presently undergoing a modernisation and expansion lifting its output from its present level of 120,000 m3 pa 180,000 m3 pa on a single shift basis.
Kate Parker
Packaging Programme Leader, Scion
Kate Parker is the Packaging Programme Leader at Scion where she is developing new packaging materials from sustainable materials. The programme she is leading is focused on improving corrugated box and moulded fibre product performance, particularly in the chilled supply chain; as well as packaging technologies which enable product traceability. Compliance with food contact regulations and end-of-life options for the packaging are also major considerations of the work. The overall objective of Scion’s packaging research is to maintain product safety and security in domestic and export markets.
Debra Goulding,
Sustainability Packaging Programme Manager, Foodstuffs NZ
Debra is the Sustainable Packaging Programme Manager for Foodstuffs New Zealand. Debra is responsible for ensuring that all ‘own brand’ and ‘in-store’ packaging is recyclable, home compostable or reusable in New Zealand by 2025.
Debra has 30 years’ of experience in food, beverage, and pharmaceutical packaging with companies around the world. In 2020 Debra was accepted into the doctoral programme at Otago University for research into government policy instruments aimed at waste minimization and the impact on the environment.
Debra is on the board of the Packaging Forum in New Zealand and a member of the Steering Committees for the Glass Forum and Soft Plastic New Zealand. Debra is an active member of many packaging working and technical advisory groups (TAGs). Most recent are the PFAS and Compostable Packaging TAG’s.
Panelist – Friday 2 December 2022
Dr Paul Watson, Paul Watson & Associates
Dr Paul Watson obtained his PhD in lignin and pulping chemistry in 1990 from the University of Auckland supported by a PaproNZ scholarship. He completed postdoctoral research at the University of Washington in Anthraquinone-RDH pulping then at the University of British Columbia developing catalysts for oxygen bleaching.
In 1995 he joined Paprican’s Vancouver laboratory where he led the Resource Evaluation program then the Fibre Supply and Quality Program and in 2004 was appointed acting Director of the Vancouver laboratory where he developed the EvaluTree initiative funded in part by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation – the first CFI grant awarded outside Canada’s universities and government laboratories.
In 2008 at the height of British Columbia’s mountain pine beetle infestation, (or more correctly central BC’s dead tree epidemic), he was recruited to lead the Canfor Pulp Research and Development Centre which he transformed to Canfor Pulp Innovation setting up a new laboratory and implementing an open innovation program in support of Canfor Pulp’s Premium Reinforcement Pulp value proposition. CPI’s search and apply mandate resulted in significant collaborations with global pulp and paper research and technology providers and the implementation of initiatives including online technologies, novel fibre products, low energy LC refining and biofuel, supported in part by funding from the Pulp and Paper Industry Transformative Technologies program. He was also appointed adjunct professor at UBC’s Chemical Engineering department and served on the NSERC Research Partnerships committee which administered $180M annually to Canadian universities.
He returned to New Zealand in 2015 as technical manager for OjiFS Tasman mill and in 2017 was appointed technical manager for both the Tasman and Kinleith mills. In 2020 he joined the Radiata Pine Breeding Company as CEO. Paul currently provides consulting services to companies in Sweden, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
