October 19, 2000
New director for UW’s Center for International Trade in Forest Products brings market knowledge from Asia
Paul Boardman, who has represented Washington state and the nation’s forest-products industry in Japan since the early 1990s, has been named director of the Center for International Trade in Forest Products at the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources.
Boardman manages a staff and graduate students who conduct international market research of use to government, industry associations and businesses ranging from small, value-added companies to large integrated forest product companies. He also supervises the center’s publications and events such as this November’s conference featuring forecasts of major international markets.
For the past four years, Boardman worked in Japan for the American Forest & Paper Association, the leading trade association for the forest- and wood-products industries. Boardman established and was director of the association’s Japan office, coordinated trade policy with the U.S. embassy, promoted the use of U.S. wood products and provided information about the Japanese market to U.S. producers.
Between 1992 and 1994, Boardman worked for the state of Washington in Japan, first as the state’s forest-products trade specialist with the Washington Department of Trade and Economic Development and then as director of Washington’s Japan Representative Office, which develops the state’s export market and coordinates Japanese investment in the state.
His work for private industry includes serving as export manager for Henry Bacon Building Materials in Seattle, vice president of VIA NW Inc. in Seattle and project manager for Kenchiku Shiryo Kenkyusha Co. in Tokyo.
Boardman says one of the strengths of the Center for International Trade in Forest Products has been its research concerning the supply side of the forest products industry, including environmental issues concerning resources. Boardman, with the market intelligence he has gained while in Japan, brings a focus from the demand side.
Boardman grew up in Japan, the son of missionaries. He earned his bachelor’s in history from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and a master’s in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.
As well as being director, Boardman has an appointment as a research professor with the UW’s College of Forest Resources
Bruce Lippke, the former director of the Center for International Trade in Forest Products, is director of the new Rural Technology Initiative, a cooperative program between the UW’s College of Forest Resources and Washington State University to, among other things, help rural communities deal with changing technology and land-use regulations.
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For more information:
Boardman, (206) 543-8684, boardman@u.washington.edu
CINTRAFOR Web site found at http://www.cintrafor.org/index.html
For a photo of Boardman, contact Sandra Hines, (206) 543-2580, shines@u.washington.edu
